People are laughing at his video, but Ben MacNeil wasn't amused when an owl swooped down from a tree and attacked him Friday as he was driving his dirt bike near Sydney Mines, N.S.

"I was just going down the trail on Mill Pond Road, just biking around and it just swoops right down from the tree. When I looked up, there was an owl … latching onto my helmet."

The 15-year-old was wearing a portable camera on his helmet and caught the whole thing on video.

"It just ran into me. It just smashed into my helmet. It definitely scared me and I screamed."

Ben MacNeil, 15, was riding his dirt bike and wearing a portable camera on his helmet when he was attacked by an owl on Mill Pond Road. (Gary Mansfield/CBC)

'This could have been bad'

The boy said he did see the humour in the incident when he replayed the video which clearly showed the bird of prey swooping down, hitting his helmet and flying away.

His mother definitely did.

"My first reaction was I laughed. I laughed and I laughed," said Lisa MacNeil.

But she also realized the outcome could have been different.

"This could have been bad, he could have crashed the bike, he could have been hurt," MacNeil said.

No harm done

"The owl could have ripped him to shreds. But he managed to keep control of the bike and stopped it. So it was good."

Ben says he wonders if the owl was defending its nest.

"He wanted to protect babies, maybe," he said.