Big Bird, a larger-than-human puppet, one of the creatures known as Muppets, created by puppeteer Jim Henson for the American children’s television program Sesame Street. Big Bird is a six-year-old walking, talking yellow bird with long orange legs, standing 8 feet 2 inches (2.49 metres) tall, who resides in a nest at 123 1/ 2 Sesame Street. A running character on the TV program, Big Bird debuted in 1969. Big Bird’s characteristics and mannerisms were created by actor and puppeteer Caroll Spinney, who at the program’s inception and until his retirement in 2018 was the sole performer in the Big Bird role.

Michelle Obama and Big Bird Michelle Obama with Big Bird in the White House kitchen, 2013. Lawrence Jackson—Official White House Photo

Despite his imposing stature, Big Bird has a childlike personality. He is intensely curious about the world around him, likes being included in activities, and values his friends. In early appearances he could neither read nor write; his learning the alphabet became part of the plotline of Sesame Street. From 1971 his best friend was Snuffleupagus, a large four-legged puppet who resembles a woolly mammoth. Until 1985 none of the adult humans on Sesame Street ever saw “Snuffy,” and so they considered him simply a convenient scapegoat for Big Bird when he got in trouble.

Big Bird in Sesame Street Big Bird reading a storybook during a taping of Sesame Street, 2008. Mark Lennihan/AP Images

The Big Bird costume was created by costume designer Kermit Love, based on sketches by Henson. Inside the suit, Spinney operated Big Bird’s head with his right arm, leaving the character’s right arm basically inactive. Spinney could not see outside the suit, though a small television monitor inside the chest showed him a camera’s-eye view of himself. Spinney won a Daytime Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006. I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story (2014) documented his experiences playing the famed yellow bird.

Big Bird quickly became one of the world’s most-beloved children’s characters, and he has been featured in every season of Sesame Street, in a wide range of storybooks, and in multiple Sesame Street Live stage productions. He was added to the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1994 and was featured on a 1999 postage stamp printed by the U.S. Postal Service. Big Bird was also the star of the movies Christmas Eve on Sesame Street (1978), Big Bird in China (1983), and Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird (1985).