What if it was to determine the community's banner or profile icon?

I do agree with this of course. I just thought it may be fun and give a way for people to participate in this group even if they don't feel like they have anything to contribute.

I also hoped it could highlight a few less popular or common owls to everyone and get them some more attention. There are definitely time I find a new owl to share our even a common owl that doesn't get much buzz, but when I post it, it falls flat compared to some other things that I don't find as exciting. So it also can let me gauge what you all are interested in or want to know more about.

Even coming up with the list of potential contestants was tough. There's almost 250 species, and I'm not going to make myself or you guys go through that much, so I narrowed it down to 40ish that represent a diverse and mostly all inclusive representation of all owls.

If this was done every year, I also feel it would be interesting to see how the collective group's preference changes over time as you learn more about them and get exposed to ones you never knew about.

That's why I feel this is an overall positive idea. Some people may be a little disappointed if their favorite loses, I know I'm a little let down when I think I posted something good that nobody ends up caring about, but in the end it's just for fun and doesn't really mean anything. We're all here because we like owls, and however it works out, an owlb of some sort would be the winner.