Birdie

* Current
* No Hat

**Birdie** is the main narrator for Central Park. He is a busker who predominantly plays the violin. According to Episode One, people call him Birdie because he can "sing like a bird" and also he bathed in a bird fountain.

His birthday is May 7th (Mother's Daze)

## Appearance

Birdie is a fair skinned, overweight man. He is mostly seen wearing his lavender fedora hat, sporting short, messy, brown hair. He wears a light-green shirt with a dark blue suit piece, crimson red pants, green-and-white shoes and a violin, which is strapped across his back.

## Personality

Birdie has a warm and fun personality. He is considerably the most energetic and excitable character in the show. Birdie is shown in multiple scenes running around and smiling while singing about the park. He loves his job as a narrator, but, is unreliable at best.

In A Lyin in Winter, he excitedly runs up to the Tillermans after forgetting them and the plot. Noticing everything was alright and realizing that he remembered them, he excitedly yelled “Owen, Paige, and your children, Molly and Cole! I know you all!”

Though, he can get a little bit jealous as seen in Castle Sweet Castle. Owen said he wanted to get someone to teach Molly and Cole the guitar, with Birdie thinking he could do it, but Owen and Paige had insisted Elwood could do it, which he responds with a jealous grunt, and Owen said Elwood is the "best musician he knows personally" making Birdie respond with "It's cool. I'm jealous—I mean I'm not jealous" followed by nervous laughter.

He is shown to not get in as many arguments as other characters since he is not as assertive and finds trouble standing up for himself and when he does, he’s not very good at it. In Rival Busker, Birdie felt the need to try and compete with Griffin in order to show that he’s a better narrator. This fails as Griffin manipulates Birdie and makes him seem like a bad narrator. This obviously annoyed him and he tried getting aggressive with Griffin but every attempt failed and Griffin even started hitting him on the face while he was trying to stand up for himself. Birdie was shown to not fight back and just let it happen.

## Relationships

### Tillerman family

Birdie has an undying love for the Tillermans, wanting to protect them and help them at all costs: In Rival Busker, Birdie risked his job in order to save Owen and Cole who got stuck in a tree, quoting. "I don't care what happens to me. I'm helping them!" Despite Griffin telling him he could be written out of the story if he interfered. He watches them from a distance and follows them throughout the story to narrate them, which Birdie claims "isn't creepy" because "he's the narrator" and even going so far as to watch Owen and Paige sleep in Sir Bricks-a-Lot. He helped Paige in Dog Spray Afternoon after she had gotten close to finding out who owned a Panamanian shell corporation, though he accidentally blurted it, he still broke the "no spoiler" rules to help her. Similarly, Birdie was trying hard to get Molly and Cole to notice Brendan's kite in the sky, but was coughing and trying to nudge them to look without blatantly saying it.

Out of all the Tillermans, Birdie is closest to Owen, calling him his "best friend" in Garbage Ballet, though Owen might not think of him as closely. He's the one to give Owen advice in Episode One when Owen got upset about no one being excited about the Turtleheads blooming and got excited when Owen took his advice about public speaking in Hat Luncheon and similarly when Owen allowed Birdie to play violin and perform with him in Of Course You Realize This Means Ward.

## Background

### Backstory

In The Shadow, a tragic bit of Birdie’s life is revealed. Birdie tells a story and starts off by saying “y’know, sometimes, when just one person notices you, it makes all the difference”. This leads into a 5 minute long scene (A Thing On Strings) showing a day(s) in the life of Birdie. It starts off by showing Birdie playing music in the park while nobody pays attention, a woman even sits on a bench near Birdie but doesn’t pay any mind to him. Change is shown dropping into Birdie’s fedora hat, which had been on the ground, but it is implied that the person who gave Birdie the money didn’t care much about him and only put a few cents in the hat. The scene changes from day to night and Birdie packs up his stuff and leaves; This repeats for several days. One day, shortly after a kid made silly faces at him, Birdie noticed an elderly woman in a wheel chair and nursing assistant standing behind her, while they both listened to his music from across the street. It is implied that this went on for at least a few days, the woman and the man watching him, even at one point standing in the rain for him, and Birdie enjoyed this. One day, Birdie walks to his spot, ready to see the woman like usual but to his surprise, she hadn’t shown up. Birdie is shown waiting all day for her and finally sees the woman’s assistant alone, with a grim look on his face. He explains that the woman had been previously diagnosed with some sort of illness, it is unclear exactly what illness, and that the man had taken care of her while she was dying. She noticed Birdie playing his instrument and the man allowed her to watch him everyday. She had been dying all this time and that day, she had actually died. Birdie did not take this news well and had been depressed for a while. Eventually, a little kid noticed him playing music and danced to it for a while, making Birdie motivated and happy again.

### Talents

Birdie is very musically inclined, being able to play a multitude of different instruments, mostly his iconic violin. In Castle Sweet Castle, he plays the guitar for Elwood, Molly and Cole.