A beautiful tawny owl has suffered a slow, painful death after becoming entangled in kite string caught up in trees.

Now people flying kites on Dunstable Downs are being urged to take extra care over retrieving their kite string, to help prevent the needless deaths of other birds.

The body of the owl was found hanging high in the air from a tree, just off a public footpath between the Dunstable Downs Golf Club and the nearby quarry.

After being caught up in the string, the bird had struggled so hard to try to free itself that it had pulled a wing out of its socket.

Dunstable man Pete Ginda was out walking a dog in the area when he spotted the dead bird, on Wednesday.

He said: "It is just a shame that such a beautiful thing died in the way it did."

Sam Bedford of the Bedfordshire Wildlife Rescue team, who responded to a call for help, said there was kite string in trees and bushes and all across the tree tops.

She said: "The bird had obviously swooped through the trees whilst hunting for food and flown straight through the mass of string.

"The string was wrapped around the bird's right wing and entangled around a branch.

"It would appear that the more the bird struggled, the more entangled in the string it became, and eventually it was unable to move and was just left dangling from the branch until it died."

Bedfordshire Wildlife Rescue is run by volunteers. They rescue and collect sick and injured wild animals from anywhere in Bedfordshire.

To find out more, check out the www.wildlife-rescue.org.uk website. The team can be contacted on 07890 973050.