This is the first picture of the child they call 'bird boy' - because he chirps instead of talking.

Vanya Yudin, aged six, may have Mowgli Syndrome, according to local social workers.

In the family flat in Volgograd in southern Russia are two parakeets along with several aquariums and a rabbit.

Social worker Galina Volskaya claims he has used the birds as role models.

"When you start talking to him, he chirps," she said.

When he gets agitated, he flaps his arms like wings, it is claimed.

But the child's 31-year-old mother Svetlana Yudina insisted: "He does have speech problems but there is nothing else wrong with him."

A single mum, she claims his problems may derive from the boy's father walking out on her and the sudden loss of both her parents.

But she insists she is the victim of a vendetta by the social services.

She says she is "shocked" by claims that her child is a 'bird boy', saying he is lively and communicative.

Mowgli Syndrome is the name given to children developing animal behaviour often after being neglected by their own parents.

Source: The Sun (World of Wierd)