WASHINGTON – A silent attacker lays in wait as a woman stepped out for an evening stroll down a familiar path in Washington’s Woodley Park neighborhood.

The leaves had just started to fall from trees near her home. Darkening quickly, the sky displayed a deep blue. Then, with no sound and no warning, a bird swooped down toward Anna Scrimenti’s head.

She spun around, searching for the source. An owl sat on a stop sign, its head swiveling this way and that.

She took a photograph with her phone and then turned to leave, but the owl wasn’t finished. It dove at her from above, razor-sharp talons clawing at her scalp.

Scrimenti is one of several Washingtonians who have had run-ins with owls in recent weeks – a phenomenon that has rattled residents but elicited little alarm from wildlife experts, who said occasional run-ins with owls come with the territory.

Residents may not see owls marauding the streets of Washington, but they’re always there, wildlife and fisheries biologist Dan Rauch said.

“Barred owls are everywhere – in parking lots, by the zoo, outside Eastern Market, all over Rock Creek Park, the National Arboretum, everywhere,” Rauch said. “They’re just so cryptic and secretive that you don’t really see or hear from them unless they come out and do something like this.”

Barred owls, eastern screech owls, great horned owls and even snowy owls have been known to take up residence in the nation’s capital.

Although the birds typically try to avoid humans, Rauch said, they can sometimes mistake fuzzy hats or runners’ bobbing ponytails for prey. Juvenile owls, unpracticed at securing and maintaining the territory necessary to attract a mate, can be overzealous and protective of their turf.

In October, when owl attacks in the Woodley Park neighborhood were reported, some species were beginning to mark their territory – some juvenile birds for the first time, Rauch said.

“To successfully find a mate during breeding season, you need a certain amount of space and resources, and when you find it, you defend it,” he said. “A younger owl who doesn’t recognize people as people and thinks it might be a threat entering their territory will attack to try to give it a good scare and scare it off.”

Scrimenti, a health policy analyst for the California Rural Indian Health Board, sent a note to her neighbors, warning them about the rogue raptor. Another woman, who declined to be interviewed for this story, quickly wrote back.

Twice, she wrote, owls had divebombed her as she was running past the National Cathedral School in Washington.

Now, the woman told Scrimenti, she runs past the area with an open umbrella – just in case.

“It’s kind of shocking that this is happening,” Scrimenti said. “It’s kind of frightening. It’s definitely one of the more bizarre things to happen in my life.”

In both cases, Rauch said, the owl attacks could have been much worse. Had the owls gone for the women’s eyes or a more vulnerable body part, he said, it could have inflicted permanent damage.

The fact that they didn’t, he said, indicates the attacks may have been scare tactics.

Based on Scrimenti’s photo of her attacker, Rauch identified the bird as a barred owl – a large brown-and-white bird with streaks that look like bars on its chest. Barred owls, one of the most common in the Washington area, feast primarily on small mammals, amphibians, reptiles and invertebrates.

They’re not considered aggressive, Rauch said, although all wild animals will attack when threatened.

“I would just stay out of that territory moving forward,” Rauch said, adding that owls are most active just after dusk and before dawn.

It’s not known how many owls live in the District of Columbia. The Department of Energy and Environment does not maintain bird census data, Rauch said, noting most owl attacks go unreported.

Scrimenti got away with scratches to her head and neck. She went to the hospital to get checked out, she said, but the bird’s talons didn’t fully penetrate her skin.

She struggled for days to look up or down without pain. Her neck, she said, had frozen up because of the impact of the bird’s attack. It took about two weeks to regain her normal range of motion, she said.

She contacted a wildlife rescue organization to inquire about having the bird relocated, but Scrimenti said she was told owls are federally protected. Unless the animal had caused a major injury, it was unlikely to be moved.

“We are in an urban area, and wildlife is trying to use the same space and resources as us, so sometimes there are negative interactions,” Rauch said. “These guys are learning how to adapt to live with us, and we have to learn how to live with them.”