Stumpy the disabled Jay

Stumpy the one-legged Steller's Jay

I set up a Birdbuddy Pro about 3 weeks ago and this guy started coming by a bunch. He would bounce around on the platform and steal all the peanuts. 😅

Taking in the afternoon vibe

I thought his bouncing around was kinda cute, but then noticed he was always standing on one leg. Later on I realized that he was actually missing his left leg 😢 and sitting on the flat platform was easy for him to rest and feed.

I swapped out the BBP for a Squirrel Buster Legacy to mitigate my massive squirrel problem. Unfortunately Stumpy could not land on the little metal perches meant for songbirds -- he would kind of hover in front of the feeder like a hummingbird and peck out one peanut at a time and fly away, only to come back a few seconds later to grab another.

I didn't want to make his life any harder than it needed to be, so I set about trying to make the SBL more approachable for him. I ended up designing and printing a couple of lightweight flat perching platforms to give him something more substantial to hang on to with his one leg, and give him a bit more distance from the feeder.

I hadn't seen him for a couple days and was starting to get worried that something had happened to him, but lo and behold who do I see at the feeder this morning:

Stumpy! Sooo fluffy.

He seems to like the platform well enough -- he was sitting there pecking away for a few minutes -- and the SBL stays open enough for him to grab the peanuts. Hopefully he is able to keep coming back.