Survival is a strong urge

Meet Uno. In recent weeks, this pine warbler has become quite the center of attention for our household.

He first came to my notice a few weeks ago when (I hope) the last spasms of cold weather from an already cold winter were gripping the Southeast U.S. I had scattered some birdseed across the top railing on the deck while filling up the feeders and I noticed this bright yellow pine warbler sitting there in the pile of seed. Not standing, sitting. He was comfortably plopped in the seed with his belly on the rail and his feet tucked underneath. I thought that was odd as most of our birds hop around on the railing and forage for the seed I leave behind as I'm filling the various feeders on the deck. I went back to washing my hands and fixing coffee and didn't pay much attention to the outside scene for a few minutes.

After getting my coffee made, I looked again and it occurred to me that something was different about this particular pine warbler. He had only one leg. The right leg was drawn up tight against his belly and he was hopping around on one leg. Observations over the next few days confirmed we had a one-legged pine warbler who was coming regularly to our back deck. He wasn't able to get to the feeders like the other birds as he couldn't manipulate the claw on his right leg. He could, however, hang on to the suet feeders with one leg long enough to get a few bites and he was pretty good about foraging on the deck for spillage.

A few days later, I pointed out this bird to my wife, Amy. She began to watch for him and we began to put a soft suet--called Bark Butter--on the top of the deck railing for him and the other birds as it was still cold outside. The Bark Butter can be spread with the back of a fork against the vertical railings on the deck, across the rail on top and even into the bark of a tree--thus the name. As it turned out, the pine warbler loves Bark Butter. So much so that he came up to Amy one day--he's quite brave--and snatched some off the fork as she held it out toward him.

Well, that was the start. As you can see from the photo above, he is a very brave pine warbler. This photo is of Amy's mother visiting recently to feed the bird I've come to call Uno. Within a day of the incident with the fork, Amy had him regularly coming to her finger to snatch off bits of Bark Butter. He would hop away a bit, eat that and then return. Sometimes he doesn't even wait for us to get to the rail--instead flying right at us and hovering just long enough to grab the treat and fly off into the trees to enjoy it.

So, there's Uno. About three times a day--sometimes more--he will land on the deck railing and look at us expectantly awaiting his favorite treat. When I go out into the yard with the dog he will come to the deck and sit and look at me. He'll wait patiently while I go inside and get the Bark Butter and come out with some on my finger. He'll dance nervously on the rail and then confidently come up and grab some off the end of my finger. He still likes Amy best but, as the photo attests, he has become quite fond of all of us as long as we produce the Bark Butter.