´óÏó´«Ã½

A rare bird's appearance in a coastal village, which has attracted hoardes of twitchers from across the country, has swelled church coffers.

The white-crowned sparrow is normally found in America, but it turned up 3,000 miles off course in Cley in January and is still being spotted feeding and flying around the village.

The medium-sized sparrow has only been seen four times before in Britain and Ireland and its appearance in Richard and Sue Bending's garden prompted an influx of bird watchers.

Although Cley reserve, run by the Norfolk Wildlife Trust, attracts thousands of nature lovers, the village visit by the bird - with distinctive black and white stripes on its head - has lifted the village's profile on the bird-spotting map.

It's the first occasion a white-crowned sparrow has ever been seen in East Anglia.

While the influx of twitchers have been keen to get a glimpse of the American migrant, the local vicar believes people have been just as impressed by the sight of the village church.

More than £5,000 to St Margaret's restoration fund during the bird's visit.

"They're obviously looking at something rare and beautiful and perhaps some of them looked across here and saw something rare and beautiful as well when they saw this church," said Rev Neil Batcock.

The money is going to be used to restore a stained glass window which will feature the rare visitor's stay in Cley.

It's not known how the white-crowned sparrow ended up so many miles away from home, although Mr Bending, who first spotted the bird, has his own theories.

"No-one knows how it got here but we are speculating that it was caught in a storm while migrating south from the east coast of Canada to the United States," he said.

"It could have become lost or tired and hitched a ride on a boat coming to England. We just feel very privileged that it chose our garden."