They've christened the new arrival the Park Crescent pheasant - and for a country bird he has certainly taken to city life.

The uninvited guest has been sneaking around the communal gardens in Park Crescent, Brighton, for at least a fortnight now.

He was first spotted by Simon Morrant, who has tended the gardens for ten years.

He said: "It was a wet morning with dew on the grass, when I heard a strange call, like a trumpeting sound. Then this beautiful pheasant with a streak of red over its eye shot across one of the lawns.

"It is a very handsome bird. I expect he's looking for a mate. It's spring after all, and he is male."

Local bird expert Peter Brown, 51, whose home backs on to the gardens, said: "I've been recording bird activity in the gardens since I moved here 14 years ago and it's the first time I've seen a pheasant.

"They are not rare birds but they are not found in urban areas. It's not without precedent but it's extremely unusual."

Mr Brown, who is compiling a book on local bird life and is known to friends and neighbours as the Bird Man, said: "It is the season when males are on the move, looking for females but they don't usually come into cities."

With an army of cats and several foxes in the area, neighbours feared for the pheasant's welfare.

But according to Derek Davies, chairman of the Trustees of Park Crescent Gardens, it would take more than a moggy to ruffle the bird's feathers.

He said: "The pheasant was roosting in a tree, and I saw a cat creeping up a branch. I felt quite worried but then I realised it was the pheasant that was teasing the cat. It was making the strangest sounds. I've never heard anything like it and it can run very, very fast."