Why was charlie parker's nickname bird?

It comes from Yardbird. I've heard a few stories... don't know which one is true.

I've never heard anything that's been backed up, but this is a familiar story...

#1 - from jazzine
http://www.jazzine.com/jazzstuff/biograp...
Parker got the nickname "Yardbird" while traveling to a gig with the Jay McShann Orchestra. The car he was riding in accidentally ran over a chicken and Parker insisted on taking the dead "yardbird" and fixing it up for dinner at their destination, rather than having it go to waste.

Other people say he got the nickname as a kid...

#2 - To me the most feasible

The definition of a Yardbird is:
a soldier assigned to a menial task or restricted to a limited area as a disciplinary measure
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?bo...

so the chicken thing doesn't really follow.

However it is true that Bird locked himself in a room for 3 years after he was humiliated on stage at a concert. He ate and slept in that same room. He practiced all day and every day. So to me it follows the definition... he was in a "limited area", a "soldier" of improvisation, "disciplining" himself through his intent and practice only to change into the greatest jazz sax player of his time (and possibly of all time)! To me this makes the most sense of how he earned his name. The name Yardbird shows his dedication to becoming an outstanding musician, instead of just a guy who liked chicken!

Regardless, his nickname however did influence such songs as "Ornithology" and "The Yardbird Suite"

I saw Jay McShann here in Kansas City a couple of years ago, and he told his version of the story. He said they were out driving to a gig somewhere, and Parker sees a chicken. He make them stop the car, and Parker runs out an catches the chicken, which they ate for dinner. After that, they called him Bird.

There are probably a dozen versions of why Parker was nicknamed Bird, but this is the one McShann - and he should know - told.

I've heard McShann tell the same story. I consider him a credible source.

The military thing mentioned above, while possible, is something I've never heard before. Parker did spend a few of his late teen years "woodshedding" in the Ozarks before mastering his technique. He chose the Ozarks to get away from KC and his bad habit of taking heroin.

Dizzy recounted the McShann story in his autobiography "To Be or Not to Bop." It also appears in Ross Russell's celebrated and criticized biography of Parker, "Bird Lives."

Bird's appetities, are, of course, stuff of legend. He loved not only music, but women, alcohol, fine art, classical music, learning, language, so many things. And he lloved food, so the chicken story fits well.

`cause he dug fried chicken.....also he sang like a bird on the horn,,,,,