IS IT a cockatoo, a cockatiel or a Chinese pheasant? Whatever it is, 'Cocky', Wolborough Hill's colourful new feathered resident, has been causing a lot of head-scratching. Lynn Baker and partner Ben Maunder, first noticed the newcomer in their garden a few days ago. 'We have a small copse and he mainly sits in there. At night he is roosting in the trees and this morning he came into the garden to eat some seeds we put out.' She said that he is the size of a pheasant with black-and-white feathers underneath, a stunning orange breast and long trailing tail. He walks like a pheasant and glides rather than flies. They were so intrigued that they resorted to the internet. 'It looks similar to a Chinese crested cockerel,' she said. However, when the MDA did a swift Google search it could find no sign of any such creature. Birdseed is obviously the way to its heart – although shy, it now comes out when Lynn goes out to feed it and watches from a branch. However, the sight of the MDA photographer was enough to scare it away. He was told the best he could hope for was a speck at the top of a tree, or a rustle in the undergrowth. Bob Baker, a director of Shaldon Wildlife Zoo – who owns the Pet Centre at Fermoy's and is a former chairman of the Newton Abbot Bird Society – was stumped as to what it could be. He said the description didn't quite tally with anything he knew, although the closest contenders were the golden pheasant, red jungle fowl, Lady Amherst pheasant or possibly the Reeves pheasant. 'He's obviously from an aviary somewhere,' he said. Ms Baker and Mr Maunder have reported their find to the police, who say they have had no recent reports of missing exotic birds.
