Pinky the dove turned peachy colour in Wiltshire factory pigment fall

A "peachy pink" bird that was found by a worker at a factory in Wiltshire was in fact a young white dove covered in tile pigment powder.

The fledgling had fallen out of its nest and into a barrel of pigment powder, and was taken to RSPCA Oak and Furrows in Cricklade, Wiltshire.

RSPCA's Anj Saunders said: "We tried to give Pinky a bath but it just accentuated the colour."

Pinky is expected to remain terracotta for the next few months until moulting.

The orangey pink youngster was discovered on the ground in the pigment shed at a tile factory a couple of weeks ago, the RSPCA said.

Ms Saunders, the centre's deputy manager, said it was "one of strangest rescues" they had had this year.

"We opened the bag and thought, 'oh, we don't normally see this'," she said.

"But he was quite friendly and jumped out of the bag and sat on my shoulder and went to sleep."

She said the bird, which was not far off fledging, should have been a beautiful white but was "covered in a powder rather than a paint".

"We tried to give him a bath but it just seemed to set the paint more," she said.

"So we cleaned his beak off and got his feet nice and clean and kept him in intensive care for a few days."

She said the centre gets in "all sorts of amazing coloured pigeons these days" including jet black "fancy breeds" which have escaped from aviaries.

"Pinky has a little friend in at the moment called Jet who is a stunning chap but we're going to have to look for an aviary for him," she said.

"As for Pinky, he's a very lovely bird but is a little bit silly at the moment and will walk right up to people so it's going to take a while to wild him up before we can release him."

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