£3k bird theft leaves man heartbroken (From Daily Echo)

Tropical birds worth £3k stolen from Eastleigh home

2:40pm Tuesday 24th January 2012 in Eastleigh By Bethan Phillips, Reporter

It used to be a room full of colourful plumage and birdsong.

But bird enthusiast Gray Targett has been left with only empty cages after thieves stole his rare collection.

The 66 tropical birds, worth about £3,000, were snatched from their cages and stuffed into plastic containers that had been used to store seed.

Feathers were strewn across the floor after the burglary, which has left Mr Targett, of Chestnut Avenue, Eastleigh, “heartbroken”.

He said: “This is like someone coming and nicking my children.

“They have shoved them in sweet jars – that’s an inhumane thing to do to anything.

“Some of them would have been killed straight away.

“The birds are what my sons have bought me for Christmas, Father’s Day, birthdays.

“They are all presents – this is my life. I just want them back.”

Mr Targett, who has mobility problems, had given all of his birds names.

Some of them are so tame they would feed out of his hand.

One bird, a pied-Siberian euomo white-topped goldfinch called Summer, was particularly unusual.

Mr Targett added: “Summer sits there and whistles to me – it sounds weird, but we talk to each other.

“He had unusual markings – he was one in 10,000.”

Mr Targett, who sometimes breeds birds, says that four generations of the same family were also stolen in the raid.

Cuban finches, black-cheeked zebras, gouldians and strawberry finches were among the other species snatched – and they all need specialist care and conditions to survive.

The burglary, which happened between 8pm on Saturday and 8am on Sunday, is not the first high-value bird theft in Hampshire.

Earlier this month, 100 budgerigars and 60 canaries, worth just under £3,000, were stolen from Grange Aviaries, in Woodhouse Lane, Botley.

Last June, about 30 finches and canaries were stolen from Derby Road, Eastleigh.

Anyone with information, or who is offered an exotic bird for less than its usual value, should call Eastleigh police on 101.