It is constructed as a montage of scenes from Parker's life, from his childhood in Kansas City, through his early death at the age of 34.

Much of the film revolves around his only grounding relationships with wife Chan Parker (Venora), Bebop pioneer trumpet player and band leader Dizzy Gillespie (Wright), and his influence (both musically and into the world of heroin addiction) on trumpet player Red Rodney (Zelniker).

In 1939, Kansas City, Missouri, young alto saxophone player Charlie "Bird" Parker performs at the Reno Club.

Moving to New York City, Charlie begins performing at different jazz venues on 52nd Street and meets trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie.

One evening, Red Rodney, a Jewish trumpet player, approaches Charlie and tells him he is a fan.

He loses his cabaret card, leaving him unable to perform in New York, and moves to Los Angeles in order to find work.

After Chan has him committed to a hospital psychiatric ward, she is advised to send Charlie to a state facility for shock treatments.

Missing the audition and embarrassed to tell Chan, Charlie goes to the apartment of Baroness Nica, a wealthy jazz music patron, and soon passes out.

[1] Initially, when Columbia owned the project, the studio executives wanted to hire musicians to re-record all of Parker's music, largely because the original recordings were in mono, and were not of acceptable sound quality to accompany a feature film.

Musicians, such as Ray Brown, Walter Davis Jr., Ron Carter, Barry Harris, Pete Jolly and Red Rodney, were then hired to record backing tracks on modern equipment.

[2] Bird received a positive reception from critics, scoring a 77% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 26 reviews.

Whitaker's performance as Parker earned positive notices and honors including the Best Actor award at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival[10] and a Golden Globe nomination.

[11] Despite its positive reception, Bird was a commercial failure, only grossing $2.2 million in North America, Eastwood's worst-performing film since Breezy, and his third least-successful film overall; Breezy earned $200,000, while White Hunter Black Heart earned $2 million at the box office.