Birdie

Birdie (バーディ) is a video game character from Capcom's Street Fighter series of fighting games. He 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.

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, as well as nightclub bouncing.

Street Fighter
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.

Street Fighter Alpha 2
Despite this setback, Birdie rose up the criminal ranks. He eventually became aware of an organization called Shadaloo and, tracking down their leader, M. Bison, demonstrated his fighting skills to join them. However, Bison only wanted a test subject, and used Birdie to perform painful and demeaning experiments. Birdie resolved to get even.

Street Fighter Alpha 3
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.

Ultimate Fate: Unknown
It is likely that Birdie remained with Shadaloo until it finally collapsed, and is then back on the streets.

Appearance
Birdie is a hulking black Briton with dyed blonde hair, a blue leather vest, 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 and sports a patently impossible hole in the center of his mohawk, giving his unique hairstyle the appearance of a sharp bird's beak.

Birdie's appearance in the Alpha series was distinctly changed 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) orange-red mohawk in confrontation screen and blonde during rounds. In the Alpha series, Birdie is considerably larger, more muscular and has a different skin color. Acknowledging this, there is a win quote in Street Fighter Alpha 3, in which he says he was "pale" because he was "sick." His lips are also larger than his original appearance.

Gameplay
Birdie combines brawling with wrestling. His favorite techniques involve headbutting the opponent through the use of his attacks, Bull Head and Bull Horn. Bull Horn offers a moment of invulnerablility before attacking so it can be used to avoid projectiles and other attacks. It can be charged up much like Balrog's Turn Punch, but unlike Turn Punch it hits multiple times. His Bull Head is a full on charging headbutt but using it leaves him completely open so the player should use it carefully. His best attacks are his grappling techniques, Bandit Chain and Murderer Chain. The player should use his other attacks to get in close, then pull off his grappling techniques to cause damage. He also has good air superiority and priority with his standing fierce and roundhouse.

Other Appearances

 * Birdie appears in the Street Fighter Alpha manga series and Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation. In the latter, he is the most prominent Alpha character, and is depicted with an American accent and an oddly noble and heroic personality, shown when his fighting Ki is being extracted but implores Ken and Chun-Li to leave him and escape with the others, and when he continuously defends them from Dr. Sadler's android enforcer despite being severely beaten several times.
 * He appears in the Card Fighters Clash series.
 * He makes a non playable appearance in Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix.

Stage Theme
   

Trivia

 * In Birdie's stage in the original Street Fighter, several posters of Velvet Underground (recognizably enough, from their album The Velvet Underground and Nico) can be seen on the walls.
 * Birdie's SF1 stage music is remixed for the first two Street Fighter Alpha games.
 * The tag team name 500 Million Trillion Powers is possibly a play off a tag team from the wrestling manga Kinnikuman, the 20 Million Powers.
 * Birdie also has the notable quality of being one of the few Street Fighter characters to change so drastically in his appearance (Caucasian to African, changes in hair, clothes and stance)
 * Birdie, when standing up full height (best seen while walking), is about the height of Sagat, making him one of the tallest characters in the game.
 * In Hakan's opening in SSFIV, Hakan is shown beating and interogating a punk who closely resembles Birdie's original design.
 * Acording to Udon's Street Fighter- World Warrior encyclopedia Birdie sees Zangief as a rival, not because of his wrestling background but because he perceives Zangief's mohawk as a challange.
 * Birdie also appeared in a digital comic in Street Fighter IV for iOS where he was seen "ripping heads off baby dolls for ammo." when he mentioned S.I.N, Abel came in and fought him for imformation about S.I.N.
 * Birdie is the first known Black British fighting game character, followed by Dudley.