You would be forgiven for rubbing your eyes in disbelief if you spotted this real-life Barbie gull.

The bright pink gull has been creating something of a flap in the north of the island.

There is a mystery about how it has come to sport the kind of coloured feathers you would expect of a flamingo.

And there is concern, too, that its pink plumage could put it at risk.

Ballaugh Parish Commissioners’ chairman Sarah Teare-Kermeen said her husband David had spotted the strange bird while working in their neighbour’s silage fields in Ballaugh.

Sarah said: ’He sent me a picture of it but I didn’t believe him until he sent a video.

’It was still there the following day but it has been spotted Peel way since.

’There is thought that a company/research project in the UK have coloured them so they can track their behaviours to see how the gulls are coping with landfills being closed etc.

’I’m not sure if that’s a great thing to do personally as the birds are more open to being attacked by other birds because of their difference, not to mention the stressed caused by capture and painting.’

Elaine Taylor from Taylor Made Cakes said she had spotted the gull by the Grosvenor pub in Andreas.

She said: ’It’s really quite strange.

’My daughter said to me "Mummy! There’s a pink bird in the sky!". It’s bizarre to see it in the sky. It flew over my head - I couldn’t believe it. I thought I was having one of those days and seeing things!’

Elaine said she, too, had heard that the gull is part of a monitoring programme. ’They want to see where these seagulls end up,’ she said.

Neil Morris, of Manx Birdlife, said there has been a research team pink-dying great black-backed gulls in the UK recently but the bird spotted in the island was a different species, a lesser black-backed gull.

He said dyeing a whole bird is unnecessary and puts it at a disadvantage from a breeding or survival point of view.