[11] On June 12, 2019, Scoot Networks was acquired for an undisclosed value as a wholly owned subsidiary of Bird.

[16] In October 2019, the firm successfully closed Series D funding, raising $275 million and reaching 2.8 billion valuation.

[19] Users can submit a self-portrait photo of themselves wearing a helmet through the app, and receive future ride credits.

[24] Later that month, Bird scaled down operations (reportedly even suspending them within all markets), and terminated around 40% of its then about 1060 employees in a group Zoom meeting.

[25] The company halted operations in six US cities (San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento, Portland, Miami, and Coral Gables), as well as European markets, including Annecy, Antwerp, Barcelona, Berlin, Bordeaux, Cologne, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Krakow, Lisbon, Lyon, Madrid, Marseille, Munich, Paris, Rimini, Sevilla, Stockholm, Torino, Verona, and Vienna.

[26] In May 2021, Bird announced its intention to go public by merging with a special-purpose acquisition company Switchback II with an implied valuation of $2.3 billion.

[27] In November 2021, the SPAC deal closed and the merged company Bird Global, Inc. started trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

[28] In September 2023, Bird acquired San Francisco-based competitor Spin from Tier Mobility [de] for $19 million.

The company is adopting a more sustainable approach by focusing on regulator-friendly operations and limiting its fleet size to avoid past expansion issues.

Bird's revenue is lower during winter, and at the beginning of the warmer months, many scooters are taken out of hibernation, an operation internally known as the "Spring Push".

[37] Improvements incorporated into this model include longer battery life (up to 30 miles on a single charge), a more responsive brake system, and better lighting and stability features.

[42] This model includes improvements to battery life (50% more capacity than Bird One), self-reporting damage sensors, higher traction and puncture-proof tires, as well as anti-tipping kickstands on both sides.

In addition, in 2018 Uber released a line of rentable scooters that have presented competition to mainstream companies like Bird and Lime.

[50] In June 2019, Bird added a new feature for cities that agree to reclaim parking spaces for micro mobility.

Because public transit stops are often a little too far from the places where people begin and end their journeys, they choose to drive, clogging up the roads and polluting the air.

[53][54] When Bird began marketing its franchise opportunities to operations staff and fleet managers, it ended up putting some workers $40,000 in debt.

[55] In March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and national shutdown, Bird laid off 400+ employees via Zoom during a call that lasted approximately two minutes.

[62] In August 2018, Bird, Lime and several other micro-mobility companies were banned by the City of  San Francisco, California citing safety concerns.

The Municipal Transportation Agency then launched a pilot scooter sharing program allowing only Skip and Scoot to operate in the city.

[63] Lime tried and failed to appeal the decision[64] and Bird began offering its scooters as a monthly rental as a way around their prohibition.

[66] Mayor Jenny Durkan announced in May 2019 that her administration would soon begin crafting a pilot program for scooter sharing.

In an audit of financial statements, Bird found that it was recognizing unpaid customer rides from their preloaded "wallet" balances as revenue.