Birdie (バーディ) is named after the golfing term “Birdie.” The other English character from the first Street Fighter; Eagle is also named after a golf term. He was in the first game and made later prominent appearances in the Street Fighter Alpha games. He is depicted as a late 1970s British punk rocker. Birdie is a hulking figure with dyed blonde hair, a leather jacket, several rings, and oddly pointed shoes. His unusual looking shoes are more common to punks in Japan, rather than the combat boots worn by punks in Birdie’s native England. He also has a tattoo of a red heart on the side of his head. He also sports a patently impossible hole in the center of his mohawk, giving his unique hairstyle the appearance of a bird’s beak.
Story
Prior to his criminal career, Birdie was a professional wrestler, teaming with occasional rival Titanic Tim (from the Saturday Night Slam Masters series) as the “500 Million Trillion Powers.” He turned to a life of crime when his wrestling career ended, doing some street fighting on the side to add to his income.
His notoriety got him invited to the first World Warrior tournament. He was suffering from a particularly nasty strain of flu, however, and lost his fight with Ryu.
Despite this setback, Birdie rose up the criminal ranks. He eventually became aware of an organization called Shadaloo and managed to use his criminal reputation to join them.
Sneaking into a Shadaloo data room, he learned about the Psycho Drive machine, not aware that M. Bison was watching him. Thinking he could use it to overthrow Bison and become lord of Shadoloo himself, he set out to find it. Bison sent Balrog to kill Birdie, but Birdie convinced Balrog to help him instead by telling him how the Psycho Drive could make them powerful. Hindered by Balrog’s incompetence, however, Birdie couldn’t find the Drive before it exploded.
It is likely that Birdie remained with Shadaloo until it finally collapsed, and is back on the streets.
or go to the Prologues & Endings page to see video’s of this characters story.
Appearance Change
Birdie’s appearance in the Alpha series was distinctly retconned from his appearance in the original Street Fighter. In Street Fighter, Birdie was a tall, not particularly heavyset Caucasian with a regular (without the hole) blonde mohawk. In the Alpha series, Birdie is considerably larger more muscular, and black. There is also a winquote in Street Fighter Alpha 3, in which he says he was pale because he was sick.