Local bird owner Bart Featherby has spoken about the shock he received waking to find his humble hashtag trending this morning.

Designed so owl fans worldwide could share the exploits of their hooters online, Mr Featherby explained the #SuperbOwl hashtag had seen flat growth for the best part of eleven months, but had "exploded" in the previous week for "no reason whatsoever".

"It's gone viral, and I don't mean bird-flu viral... internet viral" said the wise 57 year old aviary owner via skype.

The interview was unfortunately cut short when this reporter informed Featherby that the domain name SuperbOwl.com had been snapped up in 1996 by the American Football Organisation.

"What the bloody heck would they know about Strigiformes?!" squawked Featherby, before our video linkup cut out unexpectedly.