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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\u2019s 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\u2019s been known to silently swoop and even claw the heads of unsuspecting joggers<\/a> in parks, especially between March and August, its typical breeding season. Humans aren\u2019t barred owls\u2019 only victims: For decades they\u2019ve threatened spotted owls by competing for habitat (mature forests) and food (rodents), and now the feebler of the strigiformes is in danger of disappearing<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n June 18, 1974\u00a0The first record of barred owls in Oregon, in the Wenaha River drainage of the Blue Mountains. \u201cThe owls were first seen at 16:30, roosting together in a mixed conifer stand of Grand Fir, Engelmann Spruce, Western Larch, and Douglas Fir,\u201d researchers wrote.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 2\u00a0Barred owl sightings (or hoots) reported during City of Portland riparian bird surveys between 2011 and 2023.<\/p>\n 4\u00a0Visible puncture marks\u2014consistent with the number of toes on a barred owl talon\u2014left on one runner\u2019s scalp after an attack on Forest Park<\/a>\u2019s Leif Erikson Drive in July 2025.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 1\u00a0Stolen hat, plucked off a runner\u2019s head by a barred owl on the Towhee Trail in Marquam Nature Park in 2023. \u201cHe took it to a nearby tree and was messing with it, periodically glaring back at me,\u201d the runner wrote on Reddit.<\/p>\n February 10, 2015 Air date of Rachel Maddow\u2019s \u201cAttack Owls\u201d<\/a> broadcast about barred owl attacks at Bush\u2019s Pasture Park in Salem. The city had posted warning signs that read, \u201cHard hats recommended\u201d; Maddow\u2019s team redesigned the signs, and the city ended up using them.<\/p>\n 3\u00a0Salem-made beers<\/a> named for the violent owls in Bush\u2019s Pasture, including McMenamins Thompson Brewery\u2019s Owl Capone IPA.<\/p>\n $20,000 Funds raised for city parks by Salem\u2019s Gilgamesh Brewing through sales of its Hoot Attack Indian Session Ale.<\/p>\n 500,000\u00a0Invasive barred owls that the US Fish and Wildlife Service plans to \u201ccull<\/a>\u201d on the West Coast over the next three\u00a0decades, to slow their invasion into spotted owl territory. Animal rights activists oppose<\/a> the killing spree, while conservationists say it\u2019s necessary.<\/p>\n 95 Different prey items in the barred owl\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Be it skunks waddling menacingly through backyards, coyotes quietly crossing streets, or outdoor cats turning gardens into litter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269953,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-269952","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}