The Birdi Perching Stool Is Gone, and Its Ceiling Was 35 Inches
Discontinued, and better documented than anything in this catalogue you can actually buy.
The numbers
- Seat height: 25 to 35 in, on a gas cylinder
- Weight capacity: 275 lb
- Base: 13 in across, fixed rubber, no casters
- Seat: 13.3 in wide over 4.5 in of foam
- The stool itself weighs 25.6 lb
- Warranty: 15 years on most components, 5 on foam and cylinder, 3 on fabric
- Certification: ANSI/BIFMA
- Availability: discontinued
Verdict
Not a pick, because you cannot buy one. That is the only check it fails. It was ANSI/BIFMA certified, it carried a warranty running out to 15 years, and an independent reviewer who actually sat on it scored it 4.5 out of 5. Every buyable product I have looked at in this catalogue is missing at least one of those. The Birdi had all three and left anyway.
Who made it
iMovR, not ESI. I had this filed under the ESI cluster and that was wrong, which is now the second time in this batch. If you arrived from one of the Fellowes pages, none of that story applies here.
What a perching stool is for
You do not sit on it the way you sit on a chair. You lean, with the seat taking maybe half your weight and your feet taking the rest, which is why the seat is small and the base is heavy. It is meant for a standing desk, for the hours where standing has stopped being pleasant but sitting properly would put you too low for the surface.
The Birdi did that with a 25 to 35 in seat height on a gas cylinder, a 13.3 in seat over 4.5 in of foam, and 275 lb of capacity. Twenty-five and a half pounds of stool, most of it in the base.
The ceiling, and why it matters here
Thirty-five inches is where the seat stops, and that number is worth holding against the desks on this site.
The Bonita ET runs to 47 in and the Enmo reached 44.8 in at the base. Both go a foot higher than this stool’s top setting. That is not automatically a problem, because perching means leaning down onto a surface rather than sitting square at it, so a gap between seat and worktop is the point. But it does mean that if you run your desk near the top of its range, you will be perching from further below than the stool was designed for, and at some height you are just standing with something touching the back of your legs.
Measure the surface height you actually work at standing, subtract about a foot, and see whether the answer lands inside 25 to 35 in. If it lands above 35, this stool was never going to be your answer even when you could buy one.
The base is the part I would want back
Thirteen inches across, rubber, no casters. The reviewer described the tread as contoured like an off-road tire, and it is non-marking so it does not chew up a hardwood floor.
For a corner that combination is close to ideal, and it is the opposite of what a task chair gives you. A chair on a five-star caster base needs room to roll and drifts when you stand up. It finds the skirting board on its own. A 13 in fixed rubber foot goes into the corner and stays where you put it, taking less floor than most waste bins. If you are working in an actual nook rather than an office, the footprint matters more than almost any other number on this page.
Better paperwork than anything still on sale
Here is what makes this page slightly annoying to write. The Birdi published a three-tier warranty, 15 years on most components, 5 on the foam and the gas cylinder, 3 on the fabric. It carried ANSI/BIFMA certification. An independent reviewer sat on it and published a score.
Compare that to what is currently for sale. The Kata monitor arm is in stock and no two sources agree on its warranty. The Bonita ET publishes no electrical safety listing. The Elea chair‘s warranty says nothing about the frame. All three are buyable today. The one product that answered every question is the one that got discontinued.
I do not have a tidy explanation for that and I am not going to invent one. It is just what the evidence looks like across five products.
What is wrong with it
Drawbacks
You cannot buy one. Source: availability. The manufacturer no longer sells it and no successor has been named.
The seat stops at 35 in. Source: manufacturer documentation. Desks in this catalogue reach 44.8 and 47 in, so at the top of a standing desk’s range the stool cannot follow.
No casters, and that cuts both ways. Source: manufacturer documentation. The fixed rubber base is what makes it good in a corner, and it also means you lift the stool to move it rather than rolling it.
The assembly instructions had a bad step. Source: the published review. The reviewer found one step unclear enough to flag, and iMovR was reportedly revising the sheet. If you buy a used one, expect the older version in the box.
Who it fits
Worth hunting for used if you stand at a desk under about 45 in, you have a corner to park it in, and you want something that will not roll away. The footprint and the capacity are both good, and 15 years on most components means a second-hand one may still be covered depending on how iMovR handles it.
Skip it if you work at the top of a tall standing desk, or you want to move your seat around the room. A rolling stool with a taller cylinder is the better shape of tool.
Questions people ask
Can you still buy the Birdi perching stool?
No. It is discontinued and the manufacturer has not named a replacement.
How high does the seat go?
25 to 35 in, on a gas cylinder.
How much weight does it hold?
275 lb.
Does it have wheels?
No. It sits on a fixed 13 in rubber base, non-marking and safe on hardwood.
Was it made by ESI or Fellowes?
No. The Birdi is an iMovR product and has nothing to do with the ESI to Fellowes transition.
What was the warranty?
15 years on most components, 5 years on the foam and the gas cylinder, and 3 years on the fabric.
Sources
- Work While Walking, iMovR Birdi Perching Stool Review, the source for the seat height range, weight capacity, base and seat dimensions, foam thickness, product weight, the three warranty tiers, the ANSI/BIFMA certification, the MSRP, the 4.5 out of 5 score, the base and tread description, the assembly note, and the editor’s note confirming the product is no longer available from the manufacturer. Checked August 5, 2026
- Corner Nook, NewHeights Bonita ET, the 27 to 47 in desk range used in the comparison above
- Corner Nook, ESI Enmo table, the 27.4 to 44.8 in base range used in the comparison above