A TEENAGE bird fancier is devastated after thieves broke into his aviary and stole nearly 100 birds.

Chad Kemp woke on Wednesday to find the shed at the back of his home in Emerson Way, Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, had been broken into.

The 15-year-old has lost dozens of prized Dutch bloodline budgerigars, including two hens.

The birds were nesting at the time and would have had to have been wrenched away from their chicks. The chicks have since died.

Also missing is Chad’s logbook for the previous seven years of breeding. It contains details of all the birds stolen and evidence of their bloodline.

Both Chad and the police are convinced that only someone with knowledge of birds could have carried out the offence.

Chad, who has won several rosettes for showing his birds, thinks the motivation for the theft could be jealousy.

“I was gutted when I found out they were gone,” he said.

“I used to spend about at an hour-and-a-half on a morning and up to two hours on a night looking after them.

“In that book is six or seven years’ work and I had discovered different techniques for breeding, which are lost now.

“Bird fanciers are closeknit, so I’m hoping someone will find out something and I’ll get some of them back.”

It is though the thieves used bolt croppers to cut off the padlock on the shed.

They stole 90 budgies of various colours, thought to be worth about £11,000.

Also stolen was a red rump parrot, with a dark pink chest, yellow frontal markers and green wings, worth about £420.

A pair of Harthz Mountain Roller canaries, worth £500, were also stolen.

They are yellow and buff coloured and bred for singing, so would be particularly noisy.

Each bird carried an aluminium ring number of either NK3 or TB1.

The rings were either blue, black or red coloured, according to the year the birds were bred.

Ron Fairhurst, secretary of the Darlington and Spennymoor Budgerigar Society, said he had heard of breeders being targeted before, but not to this extent.

He said with birds sometimes legitimately changing hands for four figures, they were an attractive target for thieves.

Mr Fairhurst said: “I’ve never heard of it happening to this extent. What usually happens is people will take what they consider to be the good birds and just mutilate the rest.

“It could just be jealousy, if someone has done well on the show bench, but it’s terrible.”

Anyone who has information which may help police trace the birds, or catch the bird thieves, is asked to call Newton Aycliffe police on 0345-60-60-365, or Crimestoppers, in confidence, on 0800-555-111.