Red-faced police swooped on a home following reports of a screaming woman - only to find it was the owner’s chirping parrot.

Officers in three cop cars had flown over to Steve Wood’s property before realising the sounds were coming from his yellow-naped Amazon parrot, Freddie.

Essex Police said they had been alerted by a concerned neighbour to a possible incident at 1.50pm on Tuesday involving a woman shouting for help.

And when stunned Mr Wood, 54, who keeps 22 parrots at his home on Canvey Island, Essex, opened his door to them, he admitted feeling a wave of panic.

But the bird keeper, who is a retired policeman, assured the officers that the noises were actually coming from his boisterous three-year-old feathered friend.