Stunning images show how a photographer has struck up an unlikely friendship with a selection of wild garden birds - which now eat from the palm of his hand.<br /><br />Villager Jim has spent the last three years patiently taming blue tits, robins and great tits which lay their nests in his Peak District garden.<br /><br />After finally managing to entice the birds with live mealworms, they now follow him wherever he goes and he is able to handfeed them.<br /><br />And this week he was able to capture his feathered friends landing on his wife Jo's palm for the first time after they eventually took a shining to her too. <br /><br />Amazing video footage also shows Jim feeding the birds which flew in to land on him while he was lazing in his back garden hammock.<br /><br />Jim can be seen relaxing while multiple birds swoop down for a feed - with a great tit sitting on his foot while at one point another perches on top of his iPhone. <br /><br />Wildlife snapper Jim now says he now feels like the "Pied Piper" as they regularly come in to land on him as he walks around his property. <br /> <br />He has even nicknamed his three favourites Georgie the great tit, Deirdre the blue tit and Bobbin the robin after striking up his unusual friendships.<br /><br />Jim, who lives in the village of Foolow, Derbys., said: "It has taken me about three years for these birds to build up enough trust in me. <br /><br />"There's about four or five blue tits, great tits and robins which will come to sit on my hand now. <br /><br />"I began by offering them live mealworms, they work much better than dried ones or bird seed as they see them moving and think 'I want some of that'.<br /><br />"It took a lot of time for them to come and land on my hand but now I can sit in my garden or walk up my driveway and they are just there.<br /><br />"It happens the most when they are nesting during breeding season. They are a lot braver as they are desperate to feed their kids.<br /><br />"You can barely feel them when they land on your hand, it's like holding air. <br /><br />"And when they grab on to you with their feet, you know they must really trust you because the size difference is enormous. <br /><br />"My wife has been trying to gain their trust too and only managed to do so this week, which is how I was able to now take these photos.<br /><br />"But she squealed the first time, which scared Dierdre off. So they were a bit wary to return but all of them did. <br /><br />"Before then it's been impossible to juggle my camera while these birds are sitting on my hand to get any good pictures. <br /><br />"You have to shoot multiple frames really quickly as they come into land because they move so fast. The sound of the camera clicking doesn't scare them either.<br /><br />"When I walk through my garden I feel like the Pied Piper as there's a big line of birds queuing up behind me. It does feel quite special."
