FOR 27 years they have been his pride and joy.

Every day 79-year-old Stan Jones has lovingly tended to his canaries, who spent their days singing and flying around their spacious and well-kept aviary at the bottom of the garden.

But the pensioner and his wife Margaret, 76, have been left devastated after thieves stole all 52 of his prized birds in the dead of night.

The thieves struck sometime between 1am and 6am on Tuesday as the couple slept yards away in their Totton bungalow, cutting the padlock to get in to the adjoining shed, where the distinctive birds are housed at night.

They helped themselves to ten show cages, packing at least five of the Gloster breed birds into each one, before escaping through a neighbour’s garden.

The total value of their haul is thought to be about £1,000 – but Stan and Margaret say they cannot even begin to count the sentimental cost.

Stan said: “I’m just so upset – it might sound silly but they really were my life. Everything we did revolved around them, even going out for a day you’d be thinking about having to get back to make sure they were fed.

“Margaret has had quite a few tears while I’ve just felt sick to the stomach about it. We would go in there morning and night and they would know our voices, they got so used to us both. “I was quite proud of them, I had created in my mind as close to a show bird as I could get but I don’t think I’ll ever get them back.” He added: “I won’t live long enough to build up a stud like that again.”

Margaret discovered the break-in when she walked down to the aviary at the end of their Hammonds Green home at 6am and found the doors wide open and the birds gone.

Stan, who is in poor health, added: “I got down the garden as quickly as I could but as I got near I knew something was very wrong – I couldn’t hear them singing.

“It was such devastation in there, such a mess, and every cage was empty.”

The birds vary in price but could fetch an average of £15 depending on their age, with some of Stan’s collection worth much more because they included 18 very young birds born this year.

Each bore a ring on its legs, colour coded either red, blue or black to mark the year it was born, together with Stan’s initials SJ and a number.

Police are urging anyone who may have seen a vehicle in the area acting suspiciously to contact them on 101 or the Crimestoppers line anonymously on 0800 555 111. They particularly want to hear from anyone who may have been offered small, aviary birds for sale this week.