A "TWITCHER" photographing a rare bird captured this amazing "one-in-a-million" moment as the exotic visitor was snatched and killed by a swooping buzzard.

Paul Freestone, 36, waited hidden for an hour to catch a glimpse of the grey phalarope, an occasional visitor to Britain.

The elusive wader finally appeared and Paul, a police officer, started taking pictures – but was stunned when a buzzard swooped down and flew off with the bird in its talons.

Experts say the moment is "unprecedented" as buzzards – although Britain's largest bird of prey – rarely attack other birds.

They are known to be lazy carrion feeders and normally hunt on open land, eating worms, beetles, small mammals or carcasses.

Paul, of St Ives, Cornwall, captured the incredible sequence of pictures at St Gothian Sands near Hayle in Cornwall with fello w birdwatcher Tim Twiggs, 43.

He said: "Tim called me to say a grey phalarope had been spotted in the area and we immediately rushed down.

.

"We got tucked away with our lenses and waited for ages. Then suddenly it appeared close to us so I got a few shots.

"But as we were watching the phalarope, a common buzzard took an unhealthy interest in our rarer visitor.

"It suddenly launched itself and flew so low over the water that its wing tips dragged in the water and flew straight at the unsuspecting phalarope.

"The poor bird didn't stand a chance. Tim and I stood watching in silence with our jaws dropping. I've not seen anything like it in 29 years.

"The funny thing is neither of us had seen a buzzard do that before either so from a birdspotting point of view it was two birds with one stone.

"It was very strange because they usually eat carrion and neither of us had ever seen a buzzard make a kill, never mind kill a scarce bird."

RSPB spokesman Peter Exley said the image captured a "one-in-a-million" moment.

He said: "Buzzards are not really active hunters and don't use speed to catch prey so for one to catch a bird is a very unusual event in itself.

"They like to eat carrion and small mammals that they can swoop on, but they also eat a lot of beetles and worms. For a buzzard to prey on a rare visitor like a phalarope – it's a one-in-a-million chance.

"Phalaropes are birds found in coastal areas so that makes it even more unlikely that a bird of prey would pick one of them off. I've never heard of anything like it before."

Trevor Beer, the WMN's nature expert, said the buzzard may have been forced to take drastic action because the recent cold snap had made food scarce. "It's difficult to catch a wading bird like that which shows how desperately hungry they are," he said.

Grey phalaropes – Latin name Phalaropus fulicarius – breed in Greenland, Iceland, Siberia, North America and migrate to spend the winter in the southern hemisphere.

They are occasional "storm-driven" winter visitors to Britain and are seen at coastal areas after or during gales.

Their winter plumage has grey upper parts and white under parts and they eat by picking insects off water surface.

The common buzzard is a bird of prey found over most of Europe and parts of Asia, with around 40,000 breeding pairs in Britain.

They are known as "opportunists" and can often be seen walking over recently ploughed fields looking for worms, insects or dead pheasants and rabbits.