After doing some more reading about our Owl of the Year, it seems that the name is becoming a bit outdated.
After genetic testing around 2010, it showed there was enough genetic diversity to split the species into 2 different ones, so now we have the Northern White Faced and (surprise surprise) the Southern White Faced Owl.
The difference is only slightly visual, with the Southern usually being a little darker and more streaky in pattern, but various birds are going to look different, and with different lighting in every photo, it’s not that easy to pick them apart that way.
With genetic testing becoming cheaper, we’re learning a lot about what we can’t observe by other methods previously available. I tried reading a scientific paper about the original results of the testing of the White Faced Scops, and all I could make is it was the % variation of their results between the 2 groups of samples was enough to recommend the species be split. It seemed very interesting how they analyze these things, so I’ll have to learn more about how people look at genetic diversity and genetic distance so I can read deeper into these things.
One of the most unfair things in life, is our relative tiny lifespan, compared to the amount of things we can learn.
I’d love to see and hear it all if I could, but it’s so amazing all the knowledge we have available now at our fingertips. I’d never have even dreamed of seeing all these papers available, but now we have so much we can access anytime for free. We may not be able to learn it all, but at least people as a whole have essentially limitless collective memory that will make going forward so much better. ❤️