A man said he suffered a head injury after an owl swooped down and hit him in the back of the head while he was in Midtown, Channel 2 Action News reported.
Eric Thronton said he got to a “No Parking” sign on 15th street Friday when “something smacked me in the back of the head.
“I did not see anything,” Thornton told Channel 2. “Fortunately, there happened to be a bicyclist who was biking the other way who saw what had happened, and told me dude: ‘you just got attacked by that owl.’”
By then, the owl had flown to a nearby power line.
The attack is just the latest reported in the metro Atlanta area.
Deborah Johnson said she was walking her dogs Dec. 30 when an owl flew onto her dog, Gabe. Once she touched the owl, Johnson said the owl knocked her down and attacked her.
A week before Johnson’s attack, a McDonough family said an owl attacked their dog Freedom, who later died from his injuries.
A spokesperson with the Atlanta Audobon Society said the attacks are rare, but warned residents to stay alert since the owls are likely hungry and might mistake animals as food.
Thornton wasn’t walking a dog when he was attacked, but he hopes the owl has “moved on to greener hunting pastures.”
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