An exhausted owl who crash landed on an drilling rig in the North Sea has been airlifted to safety by helicopter.

The female barn oil was spotted near the MSS1 rig, around 100 miles from land between Shetland and Norway on Tuesday.

A day later, it crash landed on the rig and was cared for by workers.

Kerry MacGregor from Shetland Vets, who treated the owl at Scalloway Surgery, said: "Men on the rig cared for it before it was flown by helicopter on Wednesday afternoon for treatment."

Following the bird's ordeal, it was flown back to the mainland by helicopter to Scatsa airport on Shetland, before making the 35-minute journey to the veterinary surgery in Scalloway.

"The owl was underweight and quite shaken up, we syringe-fed it food," Kerry said.

"She was very thin and weighed around 250g, you could feel it's bones.

"There were no obvious injuries, it was just rather thin and a bit shocked."

On Wednesday evening, the bird was carefully transported by ferry from Shetland to Aberdeen on a 12-hour journey to the mainland.

Arriving on Thursday morning, she was then placed in the care of the Scottish SPCA.

Kyle McWhirr, Scottish SPCA animal rescue officer said, "We picked up an injured owl on Thursday morning which arrived on a ferry from Shetland to Aberdeen.

"The owl is very underweight but lively and has been taken to our Animal Rescue and Rehoming Centre in Aberdeen where it will be assessed.

The owl's mammoth trip from the oil rig to Aberdeen was more than 350 miles.