Magpie with cigarette in its beak at heart of Twitter storm

A rather alarming photo of a particularly hardened magpie found perched atop a UK fence post, a cigarette in its beak, has gone viral after it was posted to Twitter.

The picture, shared by @willmchoebag on January 13, has received more than 2750 Retweets and 2800 favourites, shows a magpie clutching a cigarette reportedly found on the ground.

“Meanwhile, in Manchester,” reads the caption.

While it is not known what led the magpie to pick the cigarette up, Twitter users took the unusual photo as an opportunity to quip at the unwitting magpie’s expense.

“The magpies in Manchester are getting soft. In my youth, they smoked roll-ups,” @rmathematicus tweeted.

“That magpie looks like it's about to drop the hottest indie album of 2016,” @richarrowsmith tweeted.

“If he/she gets lung cancer it'll be untweetable,” @augustine_ryan added.