Butch, a six-year-old parrot, had a habit of using a four-letter swear word to unsuspecting visitors at Tweddle Children's Animal Farm and, being a parrot, did what parrots do and kept on telling them where to go.

To save everyone's blushes, farm owner Peter Wayman and wife Denise, who live on the site, took Butch out of the aviary at the farm and into the comfort of their home.

Since then Butch has cleaned up his act – but can also go from one extreme to another.

Indeed, when Mail chief photographer Tom Collins pitched up at the farm to video Butch in action, the parrot clammed up completely.

Despite encouragement from Mr Wayman, who tried to coax the bird into performing, Butch was having none of it and kept a dignified silence until Tom packed up his kit and left.

Peter, 42, who has run the popular Blackhall farm for the past six years, said: "We got the parrot off a lad in Durham about four years ago when it was two and we put it in the aviary.

"It had a habit of swearing at people and repeating the swear word.

"When we took it into the house to live it cleaned up its act and started talking a lot and the swearing vanished."

The visitor attraction houses various species of animals and is a popular haunt of schoolchildren and groups.

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