The big-beaked blue tit, by Simeon Butts, of Telford

Earlier this week we reported on this tiny blue tit and its massive beak, and asked if it was a Darwinian freak of nature.

Telford resident Simeon Butts saw the bird in his Aqueduct garden and took a few pictures.

He estimates the bird’s beak to be more than an inch long, and wondered if he was seeing a freak of evolution.

Well, in short, no he wasn’t.

Shropshire Star reader Chris Ellis, of Lower Frankton, near Oswestry, took a picture of this little chap, who he has called Captain Beaky, in his garden.

Captain Beaky, by Chris Ellis, of Lower Frankton, Oswestry

Mr Ellis, 74, a retired marketing manager, sent us this photograph after reading about Mr Butts’s bird.

Mr Ellis, who spends many a happy hour watching the birds in the garden of his canalside cottage, said long-beaked tits were not unknown.

“I’m not sure why their beaks grow but I can remember Bill Oddie talking about it on Spring Watch on television,” he said.

“My photo shows one that inhabited our garden for several months last year.

“The beak extension seemed to cause him no problems, he was a regular guest at the peanut dispenser and appeared perfectly healthy.

“He disappeared during the summer, probably the victim of a passing sparrow hawk.

“I think we have a replacement on the way as one of our regular visitors is showing signs of growing a similar extension. A strand of coconut it certainly is not.”

He added: “I’ve had to give up putting grain on the bird table because it attracts rats but we get a huge variety of birds attracted by peanut feeders.”

Meanwhile, a quick trawl around the internet suggests that the birds could be suffering from a rare disease.

In 2007 the BBC website featured a similar case in Brambridge, near Winchester. There a four-inch (10cm) blue tit was spotted with a one-inch (two-and-a-half cm) beak.

The bird, nicknamed Freaky Beaky, was being fed beef dripping because he couldn’t use a normal bird feeder.

And last December another long-beaked bird was spotted in a Buckingham garden.

Like Freaky Beaky, this little bird was quite happy to eat fat balls as he could get his beak into them. To read the full report click here,

Experts were at a loss to explain the condition, but suggested it could be something farmers know as “feather and beak” disease, which causes abnormalities in birds. To see the full article, click here.