'It looked like a parrot with a mullet' - Family spot rare golden pheasant
The Gilbert family spotted a golden pheasant outside their home in Filby - Credit: Evea Gilbert
A mum-of-one has spoken of her family’s joy after spotting an unusual bird in their garden.
Tom Gilbert, 31, Evea Gilbert, 28, and Lola Primrose, 11 - Credit: Evea Gilbert
Evea Gilbert, 28, from Filby was sitting outside the front of her home on Hampden Lodge when she looked up to fire a brightly coloured bird in her front garden.
The bird, which has been identified by Dick Filby, who owns Rare Bird Alert, as a golden pheasant - a bird that is not native in this country.
Mrs Gilbert said: "I was on the phone with my mum at the time and I just remember thinking 'what on earth is that'
The Gilbert family spotted a golden pheasant outside their home in Filby - Credit: Evea Gilbert
"At first I thought it was a parrot and I was telling my mum that it looked like it had a yellow mullet.
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"I decided to put some food down for it and it just began eating it right away.
"It was so tame, beautiful, and within an arm's reach from me."
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After calling over her father-in-law, Robert Gilbert, the 28-year-old rang the RSPB and Marine and Wildlife Rescue to ask them about the bird.
Evea Gilbert, 28, from Filby was sitting outside the front of her home on Hampden Lodge when she looked up to fire a brightly colored bird in her front garden. - Credit: Evea Gilbert
A member of the Marine and Wildlife Rescue team came to her home shortly after to check if the bird was tagged.
"They said that it wasn't tagged so is likely to be a bird from somebody's collection that has escaped or a wild one, which is really rare," she said.
"It's such a beautiful bird and the colours are so vivid, I feel really lucky to have seen it."
The bird is smaller than a pheasant and is known to be a shy bird, keeping to dark, dense woodland and roosting in trees at night.
The Gilbert family spotted a golden pheasant outside their home in Filby - Credit: Evea Gilbert
Golden pheasants are confined to areas on introduction in England, Scotland and Wales.
Mrs Gilbert's daughter, Lola Primrose, 11, said she thought the bird was "beautiful" and that she "wished she had seen it for herself", while husband Tom, 31, said he was "gutted" it couldn't have visited when he was working from home two weeks ago.
"I just wanted to share the pictures in case it is somebody's missing bird, and if not to show people that we found," Said Mrs Gilbert.
- Is this your golden pheasant? Please email Abigail.Nicholson@archant.co.uk to be put in contact with the family
