CONSERVATIONISTS are all a flutter after discovering a tiny bird at a wildlife haven has outlived its life expectancy by six times, making it the oldest of its species in the UK.

The ten-gram marsh tit, which has a call that has been likened to a sneeze, has defied the odds by surviving spells of cold weather and predators at Foxglove Covert nature reserve, at Catterick Garrison over the past 12 years.

Volunteers monitoring the haven's avian population said they had caught the bird, simply known as number R084872, 43 times in a mist net since July 2004.

Paul Stancliffe, a spokesman for the British Trust for Ornithology, said: “At the moment we believe it is probably the oldest marsh tit in Britain.

“It really is an exciting thought. The caveat is we have not yet crunched all the numbers from last year.

"It seems unlikely we will have any older, my guess is it is not going to be beaten.’’

Foxglove is the leading site of more than 130 locations across Britain and Ireland where birds are trapped, ringed and recorded, the information being sent to the trust's scientists for analysis.

The previous British record holder was caught and ringed in a Cumbrian wood in 2003, but has not been seen since 2013 and there have been no recent sightings of a marsh tit which was first caught in Sweden, two months earlier than the Foxglove bird.

Retired major Tony Crease, Foxglove’s architect, said: “This bird we believe must now hold the UK longevity record for that species.

"I think it is probably the oldest passerine we have ever had.’’