Pheasant Plucker!

Devon couple stalked by angry pheasant

A retired bird expert is reportedly being stalked by a ferocious pheasant who has made his life a misery.

The wild bird apparently sits and waits for either John Tucker or his wife Carol to leave their Devon home so that it can attack.

Mr Tucker, 72, has taken to climbing out of a back window to avoid the bird and its vicious airborne assaults. The pheasant chases the retired ornithologist around his garden and has so far caused injuries to his head, arms and legs.

"It has got to the point where I have to climb out of the back window as he's waiting at the front door. It was quite funny to start with, but now it's extremely irritating," he told the Daily Mail. "He hits my wife in the midriff and I have to wear long johns when I go out because he tears me to bits."

Mr Tucker believes that the pheasant's behaviour is due to territorial instincts and hormones. "I think he's either pumping with testosterone during the mating season and taking his frustrations out on me, or he's just a mad old bird."

Despite being under siege in their own home, Mr Tucker said that he could never 'make him into a pie'. "I did nearly lose my cool with him the other day as he was being particularly aggressive," he said. "I picked him up and thought 'I could just wring your neck'. But as he looked at me with his brown eyes I knew I couldn't ever do it."