Thousands of votes were cast in this year's Tournament of Birds and while there were some truly shocking upsets along the way — such as the No. 4-seeded American goldfinch advancing to the title matchup — the northern cardinal proved to be the real fan favorite.
The final vote in the championship gave the northern cardinal the easy 92-37 victory over the goldfinch.
The 16-bird field was broken down into four color-based regionals and there were some blowouts along the way. The committee knew that just like in the real tournament with a No. 16 against a No. 1, it was setting up the ring-billed gull for an epic failure against the snowy owl. The results were worse than any oddsmaker could have imagined, with the snowy owl getting a 95-7 victory.
Yikes.
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