Birdo's History
The first appearance of Birdo is in Super Mario Bros. 2, serving the antagonist Wart. She appears as a boss character in many levels, with the exception of the third level in the first three worlds, as well as the first level of the fourth. Birdo comes in three colors: Pink Birdo[2] shoots eggs from her snout, Red Birdo[2] shoots eggs and fireballs, and Green Birdo[2] only shoots fireballs. In the NES version, Green Birdo also appears as gray in World 5-1 and World 7-1.
Birdo generally walks back and forth, facing the player character and spitting three projectiles at a given time. To defeat her, the player has to jump on her eggs or another object and throw them back at her. However, if Birdo is green, the player is required to throw Mushroom Blocks instead. Birdo often holds a Crystal Ball, with three exceptions: Pink Birdo's appearance as a standard enemy in World 4-3, and two Red Birdos in World 7-2, one of which relinquishes a key needed to get to the Mask Gate leading to Wart. Birdo is shown physically holding the ball in the NES version of Super Mario Bros. 2 and in Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic, although this is harder to see in the latter due to the crystal ball not having the animated red line. In remakes of Super Mario Bros. 2, it instead flies from her snout upon defeat. If the player walks away from the Mask Gate after opening it instead of entering it, Birdo will respawn without the Crystal Ball.
The Super Mario Bros. 2 cast roll mistakenly labels Birdo as Ostro (and vice versa), an unrelated enemy.
In Super Mario Advance, a Game Boy Advance reissue of Super Mario Bros. 2, there is also a robotic Birdo boss named Robirdo, who takes over Mouser's position as the boss of World 3. Super Mario Advance is also notable for being one of the last games to give Birdo understandable voice acting, as further games would simply allow her to emit honking noises. In this game, Birdo speaks clear sentences such as, "This is as far as you go!" and "Well, hello there!". She is portrayed by Jen Taylor and has the highest-pitched voice out of the different colors. The other Birdos have different dialogue lines, implying that they are separate individuals, although Green Birdo's line, "I'm ready for you this time!", implies that she had fought Mario previously. In this version, the player can steal Birdo's bow, making her resemble her original NES sprite, which has a much smaller bow.
The aforementioned cast roll mixup with Ostro and Birdo is fixed in Super Mario Advance.
In the Satellaview special BS Super Mario USA, Birdo first received a speaking role, though it is mostly lost due to the broadcast nature. Taking place sometime after Super Mario Bros. 2, the pink Birdo and her red and green friends, now depicted as separate characters, again serve Wart and invade Subcon. Birdo is fought in the same way as in the predecessor, though this time Birdo may appear randomly and invincibly fly at the player. She can also throw multiple eggs in the air and sometimes can throw bigger ones. Like Wart and Mouser, Birdo appears frequently as a card on the screen and can cast spells to switch the player character or change enemies into bombs. In the end, Birdo and her companions lose again against Mario and friends, although it is said that they would receive better treatment in the future. The voice actors for Birdos, and her friends are all okama, a Japanese term for men who act and dress like females, furthering the franchise-long running joke about Birdo's ambiguous gender.
