Be it skunks waddling menacingly through backyards, coyotes quietly crossing streets, or outdoor cats turning gardens into litter boxes, Portlanders are used to coexisting with local wildlife. But every year, barred owls test nature’s harmonies. No more than two pounds, the big-eyed, round-headed bird, invasive to the Pacific Northwest, is one of the larger and more aggressive owl species. It’s been known to silently swoop and even claw the heads of unsuspecting joggers in parks, especially between March and August, its typical breeding season. Humans aren’t barred owls’ only victims: For decades they’ve threatened spotted owls by competing for habitat (mature forests) and food (rodents), and now the feebler of the strigiformes is in danger of disappearing. Cute as they may be up in the trees of Forest Park or Tualatin Hills, these barred owls will do anything to defend their chicks and territory.

June 18, 1974 The first record of barred owls in Oregon, in the Wenaha River drainage of the Blue Mountains. “The owls were first seen at 16:30, roosting together in a mixed conifer stand of Grand Fir, Engelmann Spruce, Western Larch, and Douglas Fir,” researchers wrote.

1995 The first year a barred owl was detected in Portland during the Christmas Bird Count, an annual census of birds in the Portland metro area.

2 Barred owl sightings (or hoots) reported during City of Portland riparian bird surveys between 2011 and 2023.

4 Visible puncture marks—consistent with the number of toes on a barred owl talon—left on one runner’s scalp after an attack on Forest Park’s Leif Erikson Drive in July 2025.

10 Mile marker on Leif Erikson where numerous runners reported getting dive bombed, including a man who defended himself with his cell phone and a stick.

1 Stolen hat, plucked off a runner’s head by a barred owl on the Towhee Trail in Marquam Nature Park in 2023. “He took it to a nearby tree and was messing with it, periodically glaring back at me,” the runner wrote on Reddit.

February 10, 2015 Air date of Rachel Maddow’s “Attack Owls” broadcast about barred owl attacks at Bush’s Pasture Park in Salem. The city had posted warning signs that read, “Hard hats recommended”; Maddow’s team redesigned the signs, and the city ended up using them.

3 Salem-made beers named for the violent owls in Bush’s Pasture, including McMenamins Thompson Brewery’s Owl Capone IPA.

$20,000 Funds raised for city parks by Salem’s Gilgamesh Brewing through sales of its Hoot Attack Indian Session Ale.

500,000 Invasive barred owls that the US Fish and Wildlife Service plans to “cull” on the West Coast over the next three decades, to slow their invasion into spotted owl territory. Animal rights activists oppose the killing spree, while conservationists say it’s necessary.

95 Different prey items in the barred owl’s diet, a vast menu that consists of 33 mammal species, 25 birds, 12 insects, 4 amphibians, 3 reptiles, and 3 snails. Unclear if humans were part of the list.