A wildlife photographer managed to capture incredible rare images of garden birds scrapping in midair while cooking Christmas Lunch.

Andrew Fusek-Peters, 55, was snapping the goldfinches through his double-glazed kitchen windows.

In dramatic action shots the colourful males try to intimidate their rival by beating their wings and squawking.

Andrew, of Lydbury North, Shrops, used the windows as a makeshift hide and a shutter speed of 60 frames per second.

He said: “I think it is a good Christmas moment.

“Due to restrictions we can’t have family arguments around the table at Christmas lunch but I manage to capture another type of squabbling.

“They were really going for it.

"Since I set up the feeder and filled it with sunflower seeds these are the best I've done.

“The shots are so special you only get them once or twice a year.

“To get them in flight is one thing, but to get them fighting as well is a whole different thing.

“It happens so fast it’s just a blur of colour to the human eye.

“It is the photographer’s art to get them as if they have frozen while fighting.

“They need to be fighting to the right of the feeder so there is an area about a foot or so where they need to be in focus.

“I took between 5,000 to 10,000 shots to get these so they are literally one in a thousand.

“They are beating their wings and hovering, but the violences doesn’t really happen.

“It’s a pseudo fight and a business of showing their strength - who is bigger, who has more bravado.

“One gets the seeds from the feeder and the other has to fly off.

“It’s hard to tell the goldfinches apart but there is a clear hierarchy between them.

“It is a very noisy business as they screech and squawk and flap their wings against the other.

“It was very exciting to see so close from the kitchen. It was while doing Christmas Lunch.

“My nextdoor neighbour’s bushes are just the right distance away to let the light in and create a lovely backdrop.

“Goldfinches used to be a farmyard bird and were dwindling as that habitat declined.

“One thing that has saved them is people started feeding them in their gardens, which is a rare good news story.”