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Owl of the Year Match 19 - Morepork vs Little Owl (lemmy.world)

submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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!

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Morepork represent, the only indigenous owl in New Zealand.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

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:

From NZbirdsonline

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