WINNER: LITTLE OWL 67-57
Morepork soundly defeated the Barred Owl in a real surprise to most of us. If Morepork makes it through this, he may be facing New Zealand’s recent addition, the Barn Owl. Morepork is about 10 inches / 26 cm. It’s this small enough to be today’s favorite little brown owl?
Little Owl bested Barking Owl to get here today. Little Owl was also brought to New Zealand’s South Island in the early 20th century. Little Owl measures in at 8.5 inches / 22 cm giving it the edge in tinyness. Little Owl is all over Eurasia and Africa as well.
Will this flat headed fellow be the winner today, or will the charm and rarity of the Morepork prevail? Upvote your favorite!
Little Owl
Morepork has the colors, but I can’t resist that flat little head!
These 2 have a good bit similar between them, so it’s going to come down to those finer details today.
I’m not an ornithologist, but I have strong owlpinions!
🤣
Wo can say no to such adorable little murder machine?
Morepork
#MoreporkSquad
It’s names are certainly the more creative ones and I support that!
Morepork represent, the only indigenous owl in New Zealand.
It’s got company with the Barn Owl these days, and it thankfully doesn’t seem to be going after native birds too badly.
As for Little Owl vs Morepork IRL:
A total of 219 little owls were imported and released by the Otago Acclimatisation Society between 1906 and 1910. Additional birds were released in the Canterbury region around the same time. They spread rapidly, and are common throughout the eastern South Island.
Little owls were introduced with the intention that they would limit populations of introduced finches and sparrows, and thereby reduce crop damage. There is no evidence that they have been effective in this, nor are little owls considered a significant threat as a predator to any native bird species. They are a major predator of the endangered Cromwell chafer beetle (Prodontria lewisi), and may limit the beetle’s population. The largely non-overlapping distributions of little owl and morepork are suggestive of competitive exclusion. This may be driven more by habitat preferences than direct interactions, but this has not been studied
Tough choice, both exude fierce cuteness. Unfortunately for the Morepork, for me it has an association with Liz Truss, and the Little Owl is just adorable (unless you’re a mouse, in which case I imagine its cute flat head is actually quite terrifying).
Little Owl for me!
Oh no what’s the truss connection
Just a silly joke about her wanting more pork and how it’s a disgrace, please ignore
I appreciate all the attempts at humor here. Everyone has kept it polite so far, and I like the increased back and forth with myself and each other we’ve had going on. It’s been much more fun for me at least. I like when it’s more than you guys just giving a pic a thumbs up and moving on.
I (we) also get a chance to learn about each other. I am learning about things from England, France, Germany, Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand from you all. You guys have so much to add without even realizing it sometimes!
Ah this is sweet to hear. I had a really bad, unintended interaction with a mod on another group recently and it’s made me really nervous about making silly offhand comments, so it’s good to know we can be silly here as long as we try to keep it light and polite :) one of the things I used to love about reddit, and love about lemmy is that I get to chat to people from all over the world. Like you say it’s a good opportunity to expand our worldview.
I’m not a mod, but my personal intention is to make this a happy and positive space for everyone as much as possible. As long as nothing starts getting personal, there shouldn’t be too much off limits.
I try to keep my language PG since I’m basically representing the community most of the time here, and I try to include everyone as equal as I can so this doesn’t feel like a North American group. I may say something ignorant or misinformed about another place, but so far people have been polite in correcting me, so that keeps me willing to post about those places even though I may not know too much about it.
I feel it’s in everyone’s benefit to treat each other nice here if we want the community to grow and for Lemmy itself to keep getting bigger and better.
It’s my hope you and everyone else here feels welcomed, that your opinions matter, and you shouldn’t be afraid to correct someone or ask questions.
There seems to be a meme about her and “pork markets,” so I think it’s a Brexit thing, but I’ll let one of our local Brits chime in.
Update: Liz Truss Pork Meme
In what is the latest in memorable moments from a gruelling Tory leadership contest, a Liz Truss meme has gone viral for a strange moment in an old speech where the potential PM in waiting made a promise about pork.
Unfortunately for the Morepork, for me it has an association with Liz Truss
Ah, it’s a pity that OP went with the British coloniser name for the Morepork then.
It’s *original * Maori name, that is widely used in NZ too, is the Ruru.
I’ve called it the Ruru a few times during the contest and in other posts. I’ve been trying to keep it under one name here so I don’t confuse people into thinking it’s 2 different things since it isn’t a bird familiar to the rest of us.
The main reason I’ve stuck with Morepork is I source a lot of images from Flickr and searching “Ruru” there just gives me some Asian swimsuit model. Not the hooters I’m looking for. 😅
If it’s more respectful to change it to Ruru, I’m perfectly fine with that. I have no knowledge whatsoever about politics or social issues in that part of the world, so I’m always receptive to your feedback.
@anon6789 no, you’re all good, I was just lamenting the Liz Truss connection.
NZ is officially bictural so if you were being formal it would probably be Ruru (Morepork) or Ruru/Morepork.
Those on the left wing, Maori, and younger people are more likely to call it Ruru but older generation and those on the political right are more likely to use Morepork.
No offense was taken. I just like to be sure I’m not being rude or ignorant when possible.
I upvoted both. I can’t pick a fav here.
You picked 2 good choices then!
How are these the actual names???
They’re both appropriately named, as strange as that may seem.
Little Owl is pretty much the smallest common owl in most of its range.
Morepork by the English, or Ruru by the native people, is what the owl’s call sounds like.
I would have done so much better in Biology if you were the teacher!
I try my best!
Going with morepork for some local pride.
I wish it was local to me too!
Now that you say that, I do too. I was just making a Pratchett joke, although the city is Morpork. Alas, I’ve never been to the beautiful land of the moreporks.
Even if my reasoning is joke, moreporks are defo my choice here.
Mine too! You can tell I havent rigged this by how many of my favs have been losing this week! 😑
