A bird owner has appealed for help to find three peacocks which have gone missing from her home.

Denise Dwyer has kept the semi-wild birds at her farm in the village of Westwell near Ashford for the past 13 years.

But last week a male albino bird went missing along with two peacock chicks, and she believes that thieves may have stolen them.

She said: “If it had been a fox that got them, there would be feathers around as that is their defence mechanism, but there is no sign of any mess.

“They don’t tend to wander very far, not unless they are spooked, but they are very greedy birds and won’t go further than 100 yards from the house. That’s why we think someone has netted them and taken them away, as there have been poachers around.

“Perhaps they thought the albino male was valuable, or a female, as he is in moult at the moment. The mother of the two chicks is calling for them all the time, it’s quite upsetting.”

Ms Dwyer has raised each bird since they were chicks. The albino male is seven years old, while the two chicks are four months old and two months respectively.

She believes they went missing between Monday, October 9 and Thursday, October 12, while she was away.