Wiltshire Times photographer Glenn Phillips captured the interest of readers over the New Year with his picture of an unusual visitor to his garden.

THE Wiltshire Times newsdesk was red hot with phone calls about a mysterious white bird pictured in our New Year's Eve edition.

Readers were captivated by the feathered oddity snapped in photographer Glenn Phillips' garden and called in with their suggestion on its species.

Julianne Colbran, proprietor of JC Gardens in Marsh Road, Trowbridge, said the tiny bird was a "very pale lime yellow canary".

She said: "It's been here for about three months. I've been showing it to customers and some of them definitely identified it as a canary.

"We've got a bird table that's absolutely packed. The other birds are very welcoming.

"I'm coming up most days to fill the table. I can't stand the thought of the bird dying. It's such a pretty little thing."

Mrs Colbran is not sure where the bird has come from, but had one suggestion.

She said: "Somebody I was talking to on Tuesday morning said she saw notices about a missing canary, but this one would have been lost for at least three months.

"I hope it's not a pet as I couldn't bear to see that poor little bird back in a cage."

But bird enthusiast Paul Tomlin, of Culver Road, Bradford on Avon, believes it is a zebra finch.

He said: "I've been breeding them and you do get a few strangely coloured ones. I've had some white and brown ones myself.

"As soon as I saw it I thought it was a zebra finch. It's got the wrong shaped head for a canary."

Among the other readers who contacted us were Mike Hamzij, Peter Druitt, Tony Haffenden and Joyce Aitken who all suggested the bird was a snow bunting.

Barry Mitchell of Baydon Close, Trowbridge and Joanne Cooper of Blackthorn Way, Staverton thought it was an albino chaffinch, which proved almost spot on.

We left the last word with county bird recorder Rob Turner, who lives in Bratton.

He said: "I think it's a chaffinch, which has a condition called leucism. It's a loss of pigmentation causing the feathers to go white.

"We've had instances of chaffinches with some pieces of white, but this is certainly the whitest one I've seen.

"The only problem for the poor thing is that with its plumage it is an obvious target for predators.

"A canary is a good shout, but there's too much black plumage on it."