This is the moment a kingfisher that probably landed on a metal railing with wet feet and got frozen to the metal was freed by a passing jogger.

The tiny birds with their brilliant plumage need to eat 60 per cent of their body weight daily during the winter to stay alive and jealously guard their territory to protect their food source.

Its imprisonment meant that if the man had not come along when he did, the kingfisher would probably have died very quickly from the cold.

The kindhearted rescuer was identified as a man named only as Mr Ge in local media and is reportedly a lawyer. He had been jogging alongside the river in the park in Aksu, in China’s Xinjiang region, when he heard the sound of a bird’s wings fluttering.

He then spotted that the kingfisher’s feet were glued frozen on the iron railing.

Mr Ge said that the temperature at that time was minus 7 degrees Celsius.

The kingfisher, he guessed, must have just eaten fish from the water, and when it went ashore and stood on the railing, its legs froze up.

In the footage, the man can be seen trying to work out what the problem is and then covering the kingfisher with his hands to warm it up, melting the ice and freeing it in less than a minute.

Mr Ge then held the bird in his hands to warm up its feathers until it was safe and free to fly away.

He later shared the video of his good deed on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.

Netizens were moved by Mr Ge’s kindness and praised him.

User ‘fish’ wrote in a comment: “You did a great job, I hope you can also feel the warmth, it must be very grateful to you.”

User ‘Seventy-two o’clock’ was seemingly also very touched, and said: “It stopped flopping when it knew he was going to save it.”