HE’S the sex starved owl that’s ruffled the feathers of his neighbours with his late night mating calls.

But the future looks bleak for the horny tawny after complaints from nearby residents forced council chiefs to order an end to his midnight hoots.

Now Twixx faces being put down if his owner Wendy Whitfield cannot find him a new home.

The 12-year-old bird of prey is kept in a cage at the bottom of Wendy’s garden in Hedge End, but it backs on to a small block of flats.

The residents there are being kept awake by the randy bird’s noises after his head was turned by a wild owl that comes to visit.

The flat owners could take it no more and complained to Eastleigh council which ordered Wendy to remove Twixx or face a £5,000 fine.

Wendy, 61, a finance clerk for Botley parish council, said: “If we can’t have him homed, we either have him put down or go to court and take our chances with a fine, that wouldn’t solve the problem anyway, so I’d still be forced to get rid of him.

“The problem I’ve got is because he’s so old, he’s not any use to anyone really, he’s just going to sit somewhere, he’s no use for breeding or anything like that anymore.

“I do feel sad but my main feeling is one of anger that someone can force me to change what I have been doing for the last 20-years just because he makes a noise.”

At one stage animal and bird lover Wendy had three tawny owls, four barn owls and two little owls among other birds of prey and said she had never had any problems in the past.

But Pauline Cheetham, resident of the nearby flats called The Hedgerows, said: “It is annoying, it was really annoying when we first moved in last March. “ Pauline, 48, who lives with her daughter Adele, 13, added: “Now we’ve been here for eight months, it’s like living on a main road, you just get used to it, it’s almost part of the family.

“If there are two of them, they’re probably having a party.”

A spokesperson for Eastleigh council said: “We have a statutory obligation to investigate all noise complaints.

“We are currently working with Mrs Whitfield to bring this matter to a satisfactory conclusion.”