3rd & Bird is a children's animated television series created by Josh Selig and directed by Jennifer Oxley. The series was animated by Little Airplane Productions, which opened a second studio in London to produce it. The show revolves around a community of birds and their adventures. It was broadcast on the BBC's CBeebies channel from 1 July 2008 to 31 July 2010. Described in its initial press release as "a charming new animated series all about community", the show's format generally involves one or more of the characters encountering a problem which must be solved using the social skills which pre-school children must develop in order to make their way in the world. The show uses "photo-puppetry", an animation style created by Jennifer Oxley that uses photos of real animals and moves them using Adobe After Effects. This same animation style was used for Little Airplane's previous show Wonder Pets! and the scene transitions on Oobi.

Characters

Main

Supporting

The cast also includes world champion musical whistler, Michael Barimo, whose whistling accompanies the music of the show.

Episodes

The series ran for a total of 52 episodes, including a two-part Christmas special ("A Very Squooky Christmas").

Season 1 (2008–2009)

Season 2 (2009–2010)

Broadcast

BBC Worldwide acquired global distribution rights to the series in March 2008. In 2009, Treehouse TV acquired Canadian broadcast rights. In 2010, Disney Channel bought US broadcast rights to the show and aired it on Disney Junior beginning in September 2011. The program continued to air and was rolled out to foreign countries including the United States, where it aired dubbed into American English, as well.

Merchandising

In January 2009, BBC Worldwide announced plans to release 3rd & Bird merchandise, including wooden stacking toys, pull along vehicles, play sets and musical instruments, as well as wheeled toys, including trikes, scooters, and ride-ons. The product line was released in spring 2010 Two compact discs featuring the 3rd & Bird theme song (along with many other CBeebies show tracks) were released by CBeebies titled CBeebies: Song Time (2010) and CBeebies: The Album (2012).

DVDs/Books

A DVD titled Bird's The Word! and containing 8 episodes of the series was released in March 2009, accompanied by a series of books tying into the show. A second DVD, Muffin Land!, was released in June 2009.