Street Fighter Alpha/Characters/Birdie

Birdie first appeared in Street Fighter as one of the British opponents, and was first selectable in Street Fighter Alpha. 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 is depicted as a late 1970s British punk rocker.

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. The flu was also used to explain why Birdie was Caucasian in the original Street Fighter. Despite this setback, Birdie rose up the criminal ranks. He eventually became aware of an organization called Shadoloo and managed to use his criminal reputation to join them.

Sneaking into a Shadoloo 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 blew up.

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. Birdie's appearance in the Alpha series is noticeably changed from his appearance in the original Street Fighter. In the original game, Birdie was a tall - though not particularly heavyset - Caucasian. In the Alpha series, Birdie became not only much more muscled and heavy, but even appears to be black.