Fluzzard

"You flew! You flew! Even Fluzzard looks happy! Happy!"

- Jibberjay

Fluzzard is a shy bird character that made his first and only appearance in Super Mario Galaxy 2. He appears in only two galaxies in the game: the Wild Glide Galaxy and the Fleet Glide Galaxy. In both galaxies, Mario or Luigi must participate in the Fluzzard Gliding minigame, during which Fluzzard acts as a form of transportation for the player. As such, gliding with Fluzzard is the only way to progress through these two galaxies. His name is a portmanteau of "fly" and "buzzard", which is a type of bird.

He is found at the beginning of the level and an orange Jibberjay tells Mario that he's very shy and can't fly very well, but he can glide. The Jibberjay then notices that Fluzzard seems to be OK with Mario and asks Mario if he will fly with Fluzzard. The Jibberjay then gives Mario a tutorial on how to control Fluzzard and tells him to try to fly through the big sun circle at the end of the race. After Mario completes the race, the Jibberjay gives him a Power Star. Fluzzard later reappears in the Fleet Glide Galaxy and flies again with Mario. After completing the initial races in both these galaxies, Fluzzard can race the Black Jibberjay to see who's faster.

Controls
Players must control Fluzzard by pointing the in the direction they want to go. Pointing it upwards makes Fluzzard slow down and gain minimal height. Pointing it downwards makes him execute a fast nose-dive. Tilting it towards either side causes Fluzzard to tilt towards that side.

Trivia

 * Fluzzard resembles Ho-Oh from the Pokémon series. He also resembles a Loftwing from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, since they both have a similar color scheme, sounds, and controls.
 * When Mario or Luigi collect a Green Power Star while gliding with Fluzzard, Fluzzard will suddenly vanish leaving behind a few pink and green feathers while the brother will get the star.

Alapinta Tuku-Gleiter