大象传媒

Bob and Janet Morton were pleased when they noticed a family of great spotted woodpeckers in their Rosedale garden last autumn. Over time the birds grew in confidence and approached the feeders the couple had put out... and that was when Janet noticed the male had a "longer than usual" beak.

The couple named their visitor 鈥淲oody鈥� and managed to get a picture of him visiting a bird feeder, which was then snapped up by newspapers across the country. Now, Woody is fast becoming a celebrity with appearances in print, on television and growing interest from local people.

Janet says: "He comes every day to our feeders and has just started to eat fat balls. He has no problem eating or flying and is not easily frightened by us or other birds when he is on the feeders. The female sometime visits the garden but she is more timid and easily frightened."

That's just nuts... spot the difference!

It's been estimated that Woody鈥檚 beak is more than double the size it should be, although it seems no one is quite sure why that should be.

However, Woody is not alone.

When Libs Bailey set up her father's bird table in her garden near Ripon, she admits she wasn't an expert: "I didn鈥檛 really take that much interest and I didn鈥檛 even know there was such a thing as a marsh tit! My interest in properly identifying the birds only started when I saw a long curvy beak and knew it wasn鈥檛 run of the mill.

"I thought it was a bird from abroad, that perhaps global warming or a strong wind had blown it off course. It never occurred to me that it could be a deformity."

Tricky snack? (pic courtesy Libs Bailey)

Intrigued, Libs went to great lengths to get a picture of her unusual visitor - eventually succeeding after constructing what she describes as a 'makeshift hide' which, she says: "... involved setting the camera up between the parsley and mint on a pile of cook books against the kitchen window, then having to stick a sheet of paper (with a peep hole for the camera lens) against the window so that the birds wouldn鈥檛 take off as soon as my hand rose above the camera to take the picture."

After failing to identify it herself, she asked a local ornithologist his opinion. Libs was assured that what she'd seen was, in fact, a great tit, albeit a very unusual one. Like Woody before him, her find provoked some interest from the media and has been featured by the Telegraph on their website.

So what is it about North Yorkshire gardens that attracts these 'beaky eaters'?

"In these birds this obviously hasn't happened and that may be down to a genetic problem or disease. The problem will affect their ability to feed. It's likely that the fact we put out bird feeders and things like that these days means birds like this -听 that may not have survived before - can find food."