Twitter’s original blue-bird mascot was named after basketball legend Larry Bird.
The bird was commonly called “Larry the Bird” and became one of Twitter’s most recognizable symbols. The name reportedly referred to Larry Bird, the Boston Celtics star and Basketball Hall of Fame player. Twitter co-founder Biz Stone was a Celtics fan, which helped inspire the choice.
Twitter introduced the bird logo in 2010, replacing an earlier design. Over time, the company simplified the mark into a stylized bird silhouette, often shown without the “Twitter” wordmark. The logo was updated several times before Twitter adopted the single-letter X branding in 2023.
A common mix-up is confusing Larry the Bird with Twitter’s separate “Fail Whale” outage illustration. The Fail Whale was an image used during service disruptions, not the company’s mascot. Larry Bird also had no official business role at Twitter; the connection was simply the inspiration for the mascot’s name.