This is the moment a smart magpie that was rescued by a man who found it motionless by a road helps its new friend and saviour to sew his socks.

The footage was filmed by the man – named only as Sui in reports and who hails from the city of Anshan, in the Chinese province of Liaoning – on 8th April.

In the video, the magpie can be seen holding a needle in its bill and sewing while standing beside its owner’s leg.

Sui told local media that when he saw there was a hole in his sock, he took the needle and thread to sew it up.

He said he had not tried to teach the magpie the trick and was surprised to see that it had come to help him uninvited and started pulling the needle and thread on its own.

According to reports, Sui found the magpie lying motionlessly under a tree during a rainstorm last year.

As he was certain it would not survive, he took it home, where he saved it, and ever since, it has followed him wherever he goes.

The video garnered several comments on Douyin, which is what TikTok is called in China, such as from netizen ‘Life is like water’, who wrote: “Magpies are really family, but don’t the socks smell bad?”

While ‘Cicy99’ said: “Do magpies have a poor sense of smell?”

And ‘My Gemini’ commented: “All things have spirit.”