NOISY, chirpy and full of life.

That’s Speckles the budgie – but just a few weeks ago he was a tiny, weak and naked creature, clinging on day by day and lucky to be alive after his mum rejected him.

He was found by animal lover Nettie Trigg in her aviary – and it was lucky she didn’t stand on him.

For six weeks she has fed him every two hours using a syringe, and now his feathers have grown – mottled on top which is why he is called Speckles and Man City blue underneath – and he is big and strong, and getting ready to return to the aviary.

Ms Trigg, who runs the Small Animal Rescue Centre, Russell Road, Felixstowe, said she was amazed at the little bird’s recovery.

“When I think that if I had just put one foot in the wrong place he would have been killed, it is wonderful to see him so strong, making so much noise and really doing well. It’s fantastic,” she said.

He was only one inch long when she discovered him in her aviary among 30 budgies and 14 cockatiels she is caring for at the moment.

She knew he had been born but when she popped into the aviary to see how he was doing, there was no sign of him. His mother had thrown him out and he was lying among the shredded paper on the floor of the aviary.

Ms Trigg fed the baby bird every two hours day and night, using a catheter tube to drip fluids down his throat.

“I am still feeding him a special baby bird food with a syringe but he is beginning to peck a bit now if you give him seed. He takes seven mils of food at a time. I don’t think it will be very long before he is able to go back in with the other birds,” she said.