Bird crashes in to Doncaster home

But the culprit behind the scare was no more than a hapless pheasant.

Evie Burton, 20, was in the bathroom of the Bawtry bungalow when she was stunned by a deafening crash around 5.30pm yesterday.

She told friends afterwards on Facebook: “I stop dropped and rolled....I thought I was under attack!”

She rushed to the living room to see the large front window broken to pieces, and a male pheasant in convulsions on the floor. The bird died very quickly.

Miss Burton said: “It must have been flying at speed because it was a double glazed window. I thought initially that it was a break-in.

“It was a big bird to have done that sort of damage.”

Bird experts say this kind of incident happens either because a male bird sees his reflection in the window and thinks it is a rival he needs to see off his territory.

Or it could be that the bird sees a reflection of the sky or landscape in the window and thinks it can fly straight through.

One way to prevent this kind of incident, experts advise, is to stick a bird silhouette on the window.