Building a Bird Stand (Tutorial)

Today I built a bird stand for my lovely miniature cockatoo from Hannah Hawkins on Etsy.  Her work is amazing!  I hope the stand does the bird justice!

I started with a 1/4 inch dowel.  I cut the pole at 3 inches and the cross piece at 1.5 inches.  I drilled a hole in the middle of the cross piece and a hole in the middle of one end of the pole.

I used one piece from a miniature plug and applied glue to each end and then inserted it into each hole.

Since I didn't have any wooden craft squares or circles, I used the end of a paint stir stick.  I cut it at 1.5 inches and sanded the corners to round them.  Then I drilled a hole big enough for the pole to stick into it.

Once everything was glued together and solid, I stained the whole stand with Dark Walnut and applied one coat of varnish.  Then I glued my mini-Bijou to the stand.

The inspiration for the mini-version - my precious girl "Bijou".  We rescued her from a bird sanctuary about 15 years ago.  She was there one day short of a year.  Unfortunately, she still bears the scars of her ordeal and still chews on her feathers from time to time.