Bird lands on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogans head during mosque opening

President Erdogan had a close encounter with a bird on Friday (AFP)

pIncorporating animals into any photo call is a risky move for politicians, a fact demonstrated by the Turkish President this week when he found himself balancing a bird on his head. /p pPresident a href=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/turkey-coal-mine-explosion-turkish-pm-accused-of-slapping-protester-9381905.htmlRecep Tayyip Erdoğan/a marked the inauguration of a mosque in the Black Sea town of Rize on Friday by releasing a flock of doves and partridges. But when he opened the cage, none of the birds seemed keen on the idea of leaving their surroundings and stayed put./ppErdoğan first tried clapping to encourage them out, and then waved an umbrella around inside the cage. Eventually, he resorted to grabbing the birds one at a time and unceremoniously throwing them up into the air, only for them to fly back to the roof of the cage. /pp img alt=Erdogan.jpg src=http://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/article10457723.ece/BINARY/Erdogan.jpg width=w460/ span class=caption Erdogan gives the birds a helping hand (AFP) /span But one bird had other ideas and made a beeline for the President’s head, where it managed to cling on for a few seconds despite the efforts of his aides to shoo it away. /ppErodgan, who has in the past tried to block access to social media in Turkey and described himself asa href=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/turkish-president-erdogan-tells-conference-i-am-increasingly-against-the-internet-every-day-9772048.html “increasingly the internet every day/a, probably won’t be pleased with the images of this PR gaffe going viral./p