Ayup.

with no knowledge of avianatomy...maybe? Bird feet (are the even feet?) have always seemed durable as fuck to me.

It might lose the toes, but that wouldn't necessarily be fatal. I've seen lots of stumpy sparrows out there.

No. Bird feet are tough as nails, and the loss of a toe is not gonna slow him down measurably. Props to the rancher for noticing and addressing the problem, somewhere in this man's heart is love. Not a common thing these days.

I never thought about this problem before, but you can see how it happened. The finch used the heated bath ( that hockey puck floating thing is a livestock water tank heater ) to clean and drink, then landed on the nearest object which was the cold pipe. Just like grade school kids putting their tongues on the flagpole. I'll have to remember that on the rare occasions that it gets cold enough here and we provide a similar service to the local wildlife.

the earmites will probably take him down before the cold does

And that's why you never see Rusty's feet.