Bird watchers from all over the country have descended on a tiny Oxfordshire village to catch a glimpse of a rarely-spotted owl.

A Scops Owl, which normally lives in the Mediterranean and only occasionally visits Britain, has taken up residence in Thrupp, just north of Kidlington.

It is only the second time the bird has been found inland and singing in Britain - the last time was in 1980 - and it has proved a temptation too hard to resist for hundreds of twitchers from all over the country.

Villagers first heard the bird's song five weeks ago, but they thought the monotone call issued about once every four minutes all through the night, was a faulty alarm on a nearby Thames Water building.

Thanks to a book of birds and some detective work by one of the company's engineers, Oxford Ornithological Society was called and the rare sighting of the Otus scops was confirmed.

Ian Lewington, from Didcot, a member of the society and the county's bird recorder, said he had been surprised to find the sighting was correct.

He said: "I get a lot of calls all the time from non-birders and 99.9 times out of 100 they are never what people think they are."

The owl's song, which starts at about 9pm and carries on until dawn, is a mating call.

Mr Lewington said: "Obviously this bird is not going to find a mate so it is continuing to call every night."

Once he had confirmed the sighting last week, Mr Lewington alerted the twitcher community and prepared the residents of Thrupp to be invaded.

He said: "The first three or four nights there were 400 people each night. It is a bit of a shock when hundreds of people come and descend on your village at night."

Shane Bushell, the landlord of The Boat Inn, said there had been more than 500 on one evening, with people staying until the small hours of the morning.

He said: "Some of the neighbours have complained about the disruption because of people leaving and talking at one in the morning."

He added: "They are a strange bunch in my opinion."

Another resident, David Carles, said: "For me personally, it hasn't been too bad as we are at the other end of the village. The main thing that has caused problems have been the car parking."