Which McDonald's mascot, introduced in 1980, was created to promote the company's breakfast menu?

Birdie the Early Bird was introduced by McDonald's in 1980 to promote its breakfast menu.

Birdie was a yellow bird character whose name directly signaled the morning focus of the campaign. Her arrival gave McDonald's a dedicated mascot for breakfast advertising, helping distinguish the expanding breakfast business from the restaurant's better-known hamburger imagery.

McDonald's breakfast had begun earlier, with the Egg McMuffin introduced in 1972, but the company continued building breakfast as a major daypart. Birdie provided a memorable character through which commercials could present breakfast foods and morning routines to families.

Birdie is sometimes confused with earlier McDonaldland characters because she appeared alongside them in the broader fictional world. Her defining role, however, was breakfast promotion. The character was not the original mascot, not a hamburger thief, and not a representation of a specific sandwich.