Big Bird

This article is about the character from Sesame Street. For species of birds of notably large size, see List of largest birds. For other uses, see Big Bird (disambiguation).

Big Bird
Sesame Street character
Big Bird (left) during filming of a 1989 episode of Sesame Street alongside then-First Lady of the United States Barbara Bush
First appearanceEpisode 0001 (November 10, 1969)[1]
Created by
Performed byCaroll Spinney (1969–2018)
Daniel Seagren (stand-in, 1969; 1970)[2]
Matt Vogel (1996–present)
BirthdayMarch 20[3]
In-universe information
NicknamesGrandsonny, by Granny Bird
Bird, by his best friend, Snuffy
Turkey, feather face, and others, by Oscar the Grouch
SpeciesMuppet bird
GenderMale[4]
FamilyGranny Bird (grandmother)
Eight foreign cousins[5]

Big Bird is a Muppet character designed by Jim Henson and built by Kermit Love for the children's television show Sesame Street. An eight-foot-two-inch-tall (249 cm) bright yellow anthropomorphic bird,[6][7] he can roller skate, ice skate, dance, swim, sing, write poetry, draw, and ride a unicycle. Despite this wide array of talents, he is prone to frequent misunderstandings, on one occasion even singing the alphabet as a single word (pronouncing it as /æbkədɛfɡiːdʒɛkəlmɪnɒpkwərˈstuːvwɪksɪz/ in the song "ABC-DEF-GHI"). He would refer to grocer Mr. Hooper as "Mr. Looper", among other mispronunciations. He lives in a large nest behind the 123 Sesame Street brownstone and right next to Oscar the Grouch's trash can. In Season 46, the nest sits within a small, furnished maple tree, and is no longer hidden by used construction doors. He has a teddy bear named Radar.

Caroll Spinney performed Big Bird from 1969 to 2018. Matt Vogel began as an understudy in 1996[8] before becoming the character's full-time performer in 2018.

In 2000, Big Bird was named a Living Legend by the United States Library of Congress.[9]

  1. ^ Footage of this episode, including Big Bird's debut, was seen two days earlier on This Way to Sesame Street
  2. ^ "TV's Original SPIDER-MAN Breaks His Silence". July 11, 2019.
  3. ^ @BigBird (March 20, 2017). "Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes! I can't wait for my party on Wednesday at @CB_TimesSquare!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  4. ^ "Muppet Bio: Big Bird". July 3, 2008. Archived from the original on July 3, 2008.
  5. ^ Big Bird [@BigBird] (February 5, 2021). "I heard my friends on Twitter were asking about my cousins around the world! It's true, I have a lot of bird cousins in different countries. Here's a little bit about them" (Tweet). Retrieved February 6, 2021 – via Twitter.
  6. ^ Bradley, Bill (November 2, 2016). "Cookie Monster Finally Tells Us How To Get To 'Sesame Street'". Huffington Post.
  7. ^ Fisch, Shalom M.; Truglio, Rosemarie T. (2014). "G" Is for Growing: Thirty Years of Research on Children and Sesame Street. Routledge. pp. 39–40. ISBN 978-1-1356-6495-4.
  8. ^ "Matt Vogel is Big Bird". BBC Online. October 13, 2016. Retrieved May 26, 2022.
  9. ^ "Awards & Honors | About the Library | Library of Congress". Library of Congress.