<b>EXCLUSIVE
By Suffolk Gazette Staff

Television's Springwatch team, currently broadcasting from a Suffolk nature reserve, was celebrating today after spotting an extremely rare bird and getting it on film.</b>

Insiders on the Minsmere set say they managed to see a fledgling Top Gear Tit, one of only a handful thought to remain in Britain and the first to be recorded in Suffolk since numbers dwindled last year.

The rare bird, which has a strange ginger plumage and extremely loud call, swooped around the Suffolk coast for a couple of hours before disappearing again.



The Top Gear Tit used to be extremely common in Britain, with millions of them appearing all year round. Many also migrated across the world, ensuring populations were healthy in just about every continent.

But a violent virus wiped out numbers with one blow, and recent efforts to revive the population with an expensive programme have failed spectacularly.

A Springwatch insider said: "We couldn't believe it when our cameras spotted a Top Gear Tit. It was looking a little lost and sorry for itself, but we're hoping it has set up a nest somewhere because their numbers are very low."

The news, which will be ratings boost for Springwatch, comes as a BBC motoring show lost a third of its viewers last night, the second episode of a new series without the three original presenters.

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