Unlike other birds’ practice of carrying insect food, usually wriggling or regurgitated, to their young, pigeons secrete a nutritious liquid from special skin cells in their throat. The nestlings probe the parent’s gape to drink it. A packet of budgie seed, therefore, was not an option.

Setting-to with a latex glove, elastic band and tiny jam pot, Gary quickly replicated the oral serving hatch Banksy craved, dispensing a liquified blend of a fifty percent fruit-based wild bird seed mix and fifty percent peanuts, water and a drop of cider vinegar. With regular feeding, day and night, our orphan started to thrive. Plumage grew steadily – starting with feathers ‘in pin’ as the quills emerged  hedgehog-like from the skin, producing the soft, coloured vanes as they developed. The pathetic cries for food gradually became less frequent, eventually allowing Gary a full night’s sleep.

Four weeks later, Banksy not only looks like the town pigeon he is, he’s growing into a splendidly brown and white specimen and has even taken his first hesitant flight. Unlikely ever to return fully to the wild, he is steadily finding his feet as a human family member, while eyeing the local flock of white doves feeding outside the window. Perhaps, one day ….