Magpie rescued after getting hammered on fermented apples

By Leo Black via SWNS

A tiddly magpie was rescued after getting hammered by eating "one too many" fermented apples from a woman's back garden.

Joana Leal, 29, found the bird after a friend, who had been staying with her, sent her a video of the creature flopping around, unable to fly - or even stand - after binging on the apples.

The pair called the RSPCA who told them to just let it sober up for a bit.

Joana said: "The RSPCA said it would be fine, that it needed to sober up and that magpies do this quite a lot."

Joana, who lives in Bicester, Oxfordshire, England had forgotten to pick up the apples so the magpie, which lives in a tree in her back garden, was able to get to them.

She added: "It was a juvenile. I could tell because it was tiny and it's feathers were a little bit sparse.

"It was just tumbling around and propping itself up on its wings. It seemed to be fine. It wasn't scared or anything."

Joana, a tattoo artist, made a makeshift birdhouse using a plant cloche to protect the magpie until it sobered up.

The magpie stayed in the plant cloche for about three hours before it cleared its head and was able to fly away.