Birdo

Birdo is a strange creature that first appeared in Doki Doki Panic (AKA Super Mario Bros. 2). According to the instruction manual, he is a boy that likes to be called Birdetta. However, in the credits, Birdo is shown as Ostro, which is another type of enemy and is nothing to do with Birdo.

Birdo was actually one of the heroes in Wario's Woods. The monsters in the woods were attacking the Mushroom Kingdom, and so she, along with Wanda and Toad had to stop Wario. Although she is not playable, she aids Toad by giving bombs to Wanda. Wanda then passes the bombs along to Toad.

She later appeared in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars working for Queen Valentina. In the game, she keeps flirting with Mario.

In later games, Birdo has been portrayed as female (rather than a male who wishes to be female), and also seems to have become Yoshi's girlfriend in some games. It is possible that Birdo is a transgendered male.

In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Birdo eventually replaced Bowser as Popple's "rookie". She seems to have fallen in love with Popple. She eventually "breaks up" with him when he blamed his loss in battle on her and called her worthless.

In Japan, she is more widely known as Catherine, which was accidentally leftover in the Wario's Woods English manual.

Birdo's first sports game was Mario Tennis; however she did not appear in the more recent Mario Power Tennis. In Mario Superstar Baseball, Birdo specializes in batting. She is a balanced character. She also appears in Super Mario Strikers, but is not available as a captain, but as a a filler to complete the team. Birdo is in Mario Kart: Double Dash!! as Yoshi's default partner. Birdo was unlockable in Mario Party 7 when the player buys her with 1000 mileage points from the Duty Free shop. She shares the same orb as Yoshi, the egg orb, which allows her to take other opponents' orbs from their orb spaces as she passes them.