'This is horrible': Moment Sky News presenter breaks down in giggles during garden birds report

This is the moment a Sky News presenter broke down in fit of giggles as he read out a story on the population of UK bird numbers.

Niall Paterson appeared to struggle on the Sky News Today programme on Thursday as he failed to keep a straight face during a segment on garden birds.

The presenter began the report by reading out how numbers of birds had increased because of a mild winter but then began laughing as the names of some species appeared on his autocue.

He managed to chuckle out “long-tailed tits” and “coal tits” before he said “this is horrible”.

His fellow presenters can be heard laughing in the background.

He then repeated the bird names and added "great tits" before he later regained his composure to finish the feature.

Mr Paterson later took to Twitter to reveal the stumbling performance was part of a stitch-up.

He tweeted: “I blame those who forced me to say ‘great tits are on the rise’.”