The owners of Gnasher the cockatoo who flew into a tall tree and sparked a two-hour drama in a village will not be asked to pay the fire service's costs.

Gnasher, a yellow-crested cockatoo, was perched on the shoulder of Alex Double as he, his wife Tamara and two friends sat in the garden of the Plough pub in Clifton Hampden, near Abingdon.

Tamara and Gnasher

A noise frightened the bird who flew up into a tree on the opposite side of the main road from Abingdon to Dorchester.

Gnasher's owner, Mr Double, 58, from Bennett Crescent, Hollow Way in Cowley, climbed up the tree to get the bird but ended up getting stranded himself.

A special hydraulic platform was brought in from Oxford to rescue Mr Double.

Police closed the road during the rescue operation and while that was going on Mrs Double managed to coax Gnasher down from a smaller tree nearby.

A spokeswoman for the Oxfordshire Fire Service said Mr and Mrs Double would not be charged for the rescue. She said: "Although the incident took a long time and took up resources we will not be making a charge because it was classified as an emergency. The man was in a dangerous position stuck up the tree."