A beautiful and super-rare white hawk was spotted playing in the snow in Mid Wales by a wildlife photographer.

The majestic red kite is usually a deep reddish-brown in colour - but this one is almost all-white, with icy-blue eyes, due to leucism, or a partial loss of pigmentation.

The bird, which was spotted at a red kite feeding station in Rhayader, Wales, is believed to be one of just two leucistic red kites in the whole of the mid-Wales region.

Wildlife photographer Sean Weekly, 31, was delighted to capture the rare white bird come in to land at ground level in the snow - as the birds are hardly ever spotted on the ground.

Sean said: "It’s an amazing photo - red kites actually don’t come to ground much, and they don’t like to hang around too long, so to get this on camera was really rare.

"The photo of the white kite with its beak open is kind of comical - it has snow on top of its beak so it kind of looks like it’s trying to catch snow in its beak, like little kids do.

"They’re really amazing birds. Only about one per cent of the red kite population in Wales is leucistic, and I think there’s maybe two of these white kites in mid-Wales.

"So it was really nice to see and to be able to photograph it on the ground. I think it’s really suited to the snow around it, with its white feathers and white-blue eyes."

The white kite was seen at Gigrin Farm Red Kite Feeding Station - where Sean has built his own ground-level photography hide, hoping to be able to photograph more of the red kites and other birds of prey.