THE hunt is on for the owner of a tame jackdaw which caused a bit of a flap in Eastleigh after it queued up outside a baker's shop.

A Fair Oak-based animal shelter is hoping to reunite the friendly feathered flyaway with its owner.

Good Samaritan Chris Edwards, who works in an office in the High Street, spotted the bird when she went into the Mountstevens bakery shop in Eastleigh's Market Street.

"As I walked in the bird walked in with me. The girl said she kept having to shoo it out of the shop.

"It was outside on the window sill - it knew exactly where to go to get food. It was a really handsome bird and so tame."

After giving her new-found feathered friend half a sausage roll, Mrs Edwards went off to find a box so that she could take it into protective custody.

But when she returned someone had already taken the friendly character to the nearby PamPurred Pets shop.

"It was flying around eating everything it could get hold of. PamPurred Pets deserve a big thank you because they took it in a looked after it," said Mrs Edwards.

A spokesman in the pet shop said they had telephoned the Fair Oak-based St Francis Animal Welfare shelter which later collected the winged visitor.

Shelter warden Ann Hillman said: "It is either an escaped pet or a bird that someone has reared and then tried to release. But it is too tame to survive in the wild. It is a lovely bird. It just sits there on your shoulder or on your hand.

"If it has an owner out there wondering where it has got to they can contact me."

The St Francis shelter can be reached by telephoning 01703 693282.

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