THEY'RE getting the bird in Fairfield Avenue, Edgeside.

When their telephones ring, they are never sure whether it's a genuine call or a brilliant starling mimic which regularly perches on a nearby telephone pole.

The confusion started on the Waterfoot council estate a few weeks ago.

When people answered their telephones, there was no-one on the line. But they could still hear the telephone bell, or what they thought was a bell.

Eventually, they traced it to the bird who always seems to settle on the same pole.

Mrs Maureen Howard, who lives in Fairfield Avenue, said: "My daughter-in-law heard it when we were in the garden and she told me my telephone was ringing.

"It wasn't. It was this bird sitting on top of the pole."

Rossendale ornithologist Eric Ward of Waterfoot, former chairman of Rossendale Ornithology Society and author of a book on bird life, confirmed that starlings are noted for their mimicking skills.

And Lancashire Evening Telegraph nature expert Ron Freethy said: "Starlings are wonderful mimics. They are capable of reproducing almost any sound they hear."

A British Telecom spokesman said: "The starling must have picked up the sound of a telephone ringing out in someone's house as it perched on top of the pole."

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