A GANG of budgie-rustlers are being hunted by police after they broke into a collector's home and stole 14 valuable birds.
It is believed the gang were working to order by targeting a specific address and stealing more than a dozen birds – some worth more than £100 each.
The birds were taken during a break-in overnight on Friday at a house in Brechin, Angus.
A sp
okesman for Tayside Police said: "Given the choice of birds stolen, it is suspected that the person or people responsible for this theft will have experience in the keeping of these birds."
The force is asking that anyone with information about the theft or the current whereabouts of the birds contact them.
A breeding pair of crested budgerigars could be worth about £300, while unusually coloured specimens or birds trained to talk could raise similar sums.
The budgerigar, a native of Australia, is one of only two parrot species to be genuinely domesticated, and is widely acknowledged as the most common pet parrot in the world.
The species has been bred in captivity since the 1850s and breeders have worked to produce a wide range of colour, pattern and feather mutations, such as albino, blue, cinnamon, ino, clearwinged, crested, dark, greywinged, opaline, pieds, spangled, dilute and violet.
Standard type, also known as English or show budgerigars, are about twice as large as their wild counterparts, and are more valuable despite having a shorter life span of seven to nine years.
Tame budgerigars can be taught to speak, whistle tunes, and play with humans. Both males and females sing and can learn to mimic sounds and words and do simple tricks.
