Violent owls

[Llaura16]

Are owls normally violent? We have one that lives under a neighbors roof and it has attacked several neighbors and even clawed someones face the other day.
It's grey and has big yellow eyes and makes a shrill cooing noise when it divebombs you.
One of the neighbors thinks it's either protecting its young or has a brain parasite.

[Count-A-Strong]

Either defending it's territory or protecting it's young, most likely. If you have snow on the ground where you live, then food will be hard To come by, possibly making it more aggressive than usual.

[rowanwitch]

can you post a picture...I wonder if it is an escaped captive bird...which would be less afraid of humans... doesn't sound like a barn or tawny ..you may have local owl or british bird of prey society group near to you who could advise.

[razza]

They wont be protecting young at this time of year.Probably defending its territory,they can cause nasty wounds.

[Llaura16]

Is there anything I can l leave nearby for the owl to eat countastrong?
Rowanwitch I'll probably have a look on google images to see whether I can find the same owl for you to see as im useless with technology and have no idea on how to upload photos, the owls also like greased lightning and would be too fast anyhoo.
Maybe I could phone the rspca for birds?

[Llaura16]

razza it's funny as I always had them down as timid docile creatures towards humans even though their birds of prey.

[Count-A-Strong]

Plaits the RSPCA for birds is the Royal Society for Protection of Birds. If you look on the Internet for a picture of an owl, just copy the address of the page, right at the top of the page, and paste it into your answer.

[Llaura16]

I've got the number Birds and wildlife advice: 01767 693690 (office hours) and my mums going to talk to them when she gets back

[rowanwitch]

http://www.rspb.org.u...de/families/owls.aspx

try the pictures here....big yellow eyes sounds like a long eared owl or eagle owl....if its an eagle owl it will be an escapee

[vivandorron]

Owls can become violent if you approach their nest or roost, as is the case with other large birds.(eg. Magpies.) Never heard of owls 'divebombing' as, shall we say Seagulls, who will if you are climbing a cliff face.

Although razza has said "They wont be protecting young at this time of year." Barn Owls have been recorded as laying eggs in every month except January.(That's according to one of my reference books.) I doubt that this is the case in this instance, so I register my agreement with raz. It's possible that rowanwitch is on the right track for this one.

It's all rather strange and will be interesting to see what your Mum is told when she telephones the advice line.

Ron

[burnhal]

anyone here old enough to remember the famous bird photographer Eric Hosking? He lost an eye to a Tawny whilst climbing up to his hide.

[vivandorron]

I can recall that there was a photographer who was attacked by an owl and lost an eye.
However, I didn't know his name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Hosking

Ron.

[DTCwordfan]

that was a real howler of a story, Ron.

[vivandorron]

Hi DT....After almost three months I was beginning to think that you had given this thread 'the bird'.:-)

Cheers.....Ron.