‘We had never seen anything like it’: Rare albino pheasant caught on video in back garden

Brian Cave found unusual bird wandering around outside his home in Newquay, Cornwall

A rare albino pheasant has been caught on camera wandering around a family’s back garden.

Brian Cave, 52, was venturing out for a walk with his pet dog Blaze just before Christmas when he spotted the unusual bird at his home in Newquay, Cornwall.

With no idea what the strange-looking bird was, the retired ambulance technician filmed a video so he could look it up later.

He said the bird was completely white except for a touch of red around the eyes – and a quick internet search revealed it was in fact a rare albino pheasant.

"We Googled it because we had never seen anything like it, and we thought it looked like an albino pheasant,” said Mr Cave.

"We got some video footage of it so we could show it to friends. It was something I had never seen before, it was about the same size as a regular pheasant.

"It didn't fly away straight away, it kept walking around.

"Where we live we see lots of different types of birds but we'd never seen one like this before, it was very unusual. I was very surprised.”

Boxing Day is usually better known for hunting game birds rather than appreciating their beauty, with the Royal Family traditionally holding a shoot at Sandringham, their Norfolk estate, the day after Christmas.

But the sighting of a true albino in the wild is a rare treat, according to the British Trust for Ornithology.

The registered charity said most albino birds “die soon after fledging, primarily as a consequence of their poor eyesight, and albino birds are not thought to progress to adulthood in the wild”.

A rare albino pheasant also spooked travellers last year when it was seen stalking fields near the A379 in Yealmpton, Devon, on Halloween.

Additional reporting by agencies