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The Main Duo
General
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: They have been best friends since college and still spend most of their time together.
- Inexplicably Tailless: Neither of them has tail feathers of any sort.
- Odd Couple: Tuca, a devil-may-care, bombastic and sexually liberated toucan shared an apartment with button-up, quiet and shy Bertie.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Tuca is the wild, rambunctious, confident red oni to Bertie's anxious and shy blue oni.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Tuca is gregarious, outgoing, and enjoys partying at the club, while Bertie is soft-spoken and has traditionally feminine interests such as baking and interior design.
- True Companions: Tuca is always helping Bertie in situations that require her to be more assertive, while Bertie, in turn, helps Tuca in situations that require her to be more focused. Even after an enormous fight that leads to an entire month of them not speaking, they clearly love one another too much to keep friction between them and are seen having fun and crying together mere hours after they see each other for the first time in said month.
Tuca Toucan
Tuca Toucan
Voiced by: Tiffany Haddish
"Friend, hero, connoisseur of snacks, confident-yet-relatable, wearer of short-shorts"
A cocky and carefree Toco toucan. She is in her 30's and living on her own above Bertie’s apartment after she has her boyfriend Speckle move in with her.
- Afraid of Doctors: Due to the trauma of being in the hospital when her mother died after a terrible car accident, Tuca doesn’t trust doctors at all. She refuses to go to the hospital to get a painful lump in her side looked at and only ends up going when, during a livestream, the pain becomes unbearable and she ends up begging whoever's listening to come and help her. She's fine visiting people in the hospital, though, given her nightly visits to her aunt and friendship with Kara, a nurse, in "Nighttime Friend." It doesn't help that she also suffers chronic uterine pain, and even when she braves going to the doctor, they usually never give her any good advice. After she and Kara break up due to the latter being emotionally abusive, she now doesn’t like visiting the hospital due to the possibility of bumping into her.
- The Alcoholic: Recovering alcoholic. She's revealed to have had several relapses and at least one near-death experience from alcohol poisoning, but is six months sober when the show starts, and remains so.
- Alliterative Name: Tuca Toucan. Doubles as a Species Surname.
- Awesome, but Impractical: As shown in "The Promotion," Tuca does have skills, including in landscaping and building things, but she doesn't seem to know how to use them in ways that are both useful or can be made into sustainable careers (few people have use for a chest of drawers to store food for sandwiches).
- Berserk Button: You can insult her all you want, she'll just shrug it off. Saying anything bad about her late mother, however, is guaranteed to piss her off.
- Big Eater: Nearly every scene depicts her eating something in large quantities.
- Blithe Spirit: How she often helps Bertie with her problems. Due to being so responsible and anxiety-ridden, Bertie often feels like a situation is hopeless or can only be done a certain way. Tuca comes in and does whatever she wants with tons of confidence and swagger, solving problems in unconventional ways.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Less lazy and more "unfocused." It's shown that Tuca does have useful skills which she uses to do odd jobs, but she's too hyperactive or immature to do them the way she's expected to (for example, she puts a chest of drawers together perfectly, but ruins it immediately by using it to store cold cuts). She does, however, take to virtual sex work like a duck to water. In "Fledgling Day", she reveals that her lack of regard of work ethic are tied to the tragedy of losing her loving, self-effacing, hard-working mother young as that ethic didn't guarantee old age for her mom.
- Cool Aunt: She gets along very well with her sister's daughter Tulip, since they have a similarly dark sense of humor and love to goof around.
- Dark and Troubled Past: She lost her mother in a car wreck at a young age and became estranged from her surviving family as a result. She's also a recovering alcoholic, having repeatedly tried to go sober after a near death experience from alcohol poisoning in college.
- Deceased Parents Are the Best: Tuca's mother died in an accident when she was young, but it's clear that Tuca still loves her and looks up to her, especially when she has trouble with the rest of her family.
- Extreme Omnisexual: Zig-zagged. In her younger days when she drank, she was extremely flirty and sexually active with men and women of all kinds. However, following her near-death experience from alcohol poisoning, she's struggled to get back into the dating scene. In "Bird Mechanics," she hosts a dating game on a "Sex Bus" to test out many different partners at once (even including an elderly man with a husband who's there by accident), but kicks them out for flimsy reasons and eventually prioritizes Bertie over the girl she does pick, showing that Tuca's willing to hook up with anybody in theory, but still isn't quite ready to get back into the dating game. Season 3's "Leaf Raking" shows her eager to have sex with every raker in the stadium, and even becomes The Chosen One to break the stadium's curse due to her impressive sexual history, and only fails due to unresolved hangups about her most recent ex affecting her libido.
- Extreme Omnivore: She's eaten her share of inedible objects. In "The Open House", she sprays a realtor's can of cookie-scented air freshener straight into her beak (and continues to do so despite not liking the taste). When the realtor asks for the can back, she refuses to hand it over and swallows it whole. Later in the same episode, she eats the dumplings out of a styrofoam takeout container and then eats the container.
- The Gadfly: Pretty much her entire character. Whether it's the right time or not, Tuca will always do what she wants at any moment, even if (sometimes especially if) it makes others uncomfortable. It's not always without a point, often blurring it with Stealth Mentor and The Wonka.
- Genki Girl: An adult version, bordering on immature. She has all of the energy and excitement of a little kid. Being voiced by the famously boisterous Tiffany Haddish certainly helps.
- Grew a Spine: Spends most of her Aunt Talulah's introductory episode laughing off her half-joking verbal abuse, knowing that she'll stop bailing her out if Tuca calls her out on it. However, when Talulah goes too far and says something negative about Tuca's deceased mother (with whom Tuca was very close), Tuca tears up her check and tells her she doesn't need Talulah's support any more.
- Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Used to be one, which has resulted in at least one alcohol poisoning incident. While she still likes to party, she's been adamant about sticking to her sobriety since she stopped drinking six months before the events of the first season.
- Hidden Depths: She's revealed to be somewhat self conscious about her body image (mostly her thighs) and what Bertie thinks of her. She’s also very adamant about sticking to her current sobriety.
- Inferiority Superiority Complex: Downplayed. Tuca is every bit as confident as she seems day-to-day, but fears abandonment and has (well hidden) Weight Woe.
- Internalized Categorism: It's implied that Tuca has internalized her Aunt Talulah's emotionally abusive comments that she's a lazy, scatter-brained moocher who will never amount to anything.
- Large Ham: Tuca is not afraid to speak her mind whether people like it or not.
- Ms. Fanservice: She has a very curvaceous figure and her tush is drawn in heavy detail. We even see her topless on occasion. In her case, it's more an act of self-confidence rather than being attractive to men.
- Ms. Vice Girl: Tuca is loud, cocky, abrasive, and tends to speak before she thinks, but she is not a bad person. She clearly cares about her best friend Bertie and supports her all the way.
- No Indoor Voice: Tends to speak in shouts.
- No Periods, Period: Completely averted in Season 3 in which it’s revealed Tuca has chronic pain during her periods (very likely endometriosis), in which she has very painful cramps and heavy bleeding, which sometimes gets so severe she throws up and/or passes out. The Pain Garden is focused on it and a few other episodes in the season mention it.
- One Head Taller: She's a head taller than Bertie.
- Parental Abandonment: Tuca's mother raised her and her siblings before tragically dying in a car accident, and she mentions that her father walked out on the family.
- Queer Establishing Moment: Tuca is revealed to be either bi or pan in "Deli Guy", where flashbacks show her making out with a variety of partners, male and female.
- Relative Button: Aunt Tallulah insulting her mother is the only thing that gets Tuca to stop taking her bullshit.
- Really Gets Around: Prior to the events of the series, she's had many sexcapades either screwing or making out with various partners, male and female. This is a plot point in "Leaf Raking" when her sexual history makes her The Chosen One to have sex with the entire raking team; she doesn't succeed due to mental health issues, but she does encourage the elders to have sex with them and break the curse, and ends up having sex with an elder herself.
- Recovered Addict: She used to be a Hard-Drinking Party Girl, but at the start of the series, she's been sober for six months and wants to keep it that way.
- Species Surname: "Tuca Toucan".
- Tank-Top Tomboy: Her usual outfit consists of a blue tank top, while also wearing shorts.
- The Teetotaler: You'd expect her to fit into Hard-Drinking Party Girl territory, given her personality, but after a near-death experience in college and several relapses, she's decided that sober living is worth the effort.
- Trademark Favorite Food: While she generally eats a lot, she seems to have a preference for cold cuts.
- Trash of the Titans: Her apartment is littered with garbage, mainly half-finished containers of food. She works on fixing this in first season finale.
- Weight Woe: While it’s very well hidden, Tuca is self-conscious about her thick thighs.
Bertie Songthrush
Roberta "Bertie" Songthrush
Voiced by: Ali Wong
"Professional amateur chef, people pleaser, fussbudget"
An anxious and day-dreamy song thrush who used to live with her roommate with Tuca.
- Afraid of Lightning: "The New Bird" mentions that she hides during thunderstorms.
- Ambiguously Bi: Her general preference is for the guys, but after her high school friend Muriel kissed her, she was pretty eager for more. It's not entirely clear if she really was attracted to Muriel or if she was just desperate for affection.
- Asianand Nerdy: She’s arguably Asian coded since her and her parents are voiced by Asian actors (Ali Wong is Chinese/Vietnamese while Margaret Cho and Randall Park are Korean), and she’s shown to be quiet endearingly dorky.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Is generally soft spoken and polite and dislikes confrontation, but can and will be assertive when she reaches her limits.
- Broken Pedestal: Becomes one to Dakota after the latter finds out the hard way that Bertie never told her about Pastry Pete's true nature.Dakota: I looked up to you...
- Chubby Chaser: It’s somewhat implied Bertie is into heavier-set men, as she had a crush on Pastry Pete, who has a belly yet large muscular arms, and her boyfriend Speckle has a "dad bod".
- Commitment Issues: Bertie is very glad to have a steady boyfriend and is the first time she has reached a stage of a relationship in which they're living together, but she's also terrified of going any further than that. Even though she's aware of the fact they may move to a bigger house together eventually, when the opportunity comes up, she freezes up and makes them lose the house, and when having to face troubles, she just vanishes for a week from his life.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Uptight yet down to earth, Bertie often tries to reign in Tuca's flights of fancy without much success. Of course, this is only when they interfere with her life or cross a line, as she often needs Tuca's advice — and in one instance, argues against buying a house she doesn't want to commit to by claiming Tuca needs her. Deconstructed, as the show also showcases multiple instances where this is a strain on Bertie, and being there for Tuca often comes at the expense of Bertie's personal and professional life.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Her anxiety issues are at least partially the result of being taken advantage of sexually as a child by a camp lifeguard, which traumatized her enough to abandon her love of swimming.
- Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: "Sweetbeak" has Speckle chew her out for disappearing to confront one of her issues on a flight of fancy and not calling him for a week. He tells her she has to work on being better and can't keep using him for support and taking care of her problems without reciprocating if she wants the relationship to work.
- Ghost in the Machine: In "The Open House", we see the inside of Bertie's brain as she examines Pastry Pete, which contains two miniature versions of Bertie herself pacing around and seeing the world through Bertie's eyeballs.
- Masturbation Means Sexual Frustration: Played for Drama in "Plumage". Bertie has been dealing with a crush on her boss, Pastry Pete, as well as coping with daily fears of sexual harassment. When Pete pushes her head into a boiling pot of banana roux, Bertie retreats to the bathroom in a fit of anxiety and masturbates to cope with the stressful experience. This foreshadows her childhood sexual trauma.
- Neat Freak: She keeps her apartment immaculate, which is a full-time job considering she's best friends with Tuca.
- Nervous Wreck: Bertie clearly suffers from anxiety, and she struggles with keeping panic attacks under control whenever she gets anxious in public.
- Nice Girl: Bertie has shown to be kind, sensitive, caring, and supportive to both Tuca and Speckle.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Her real first name is Roberta and she's occasionally called that, but she mainly goes by Bertie.
- The Perfectionist: She tends to fixate on doing everything perfectly from her office job as a data analyst, to her side hustle as a baker, to her sex life with Speckle. Her fears of not measuring up is a large part of what drives her crippling anxiety.
- Poor Man's Porn: While she admits that it's not technically porn, Bertie gets turned on by romantic BBC shows, largely because of how chaste they are.
- Punny Name: A bird whose nickname sounds exactly like Birdie.
- Queer Establishing Moment: Bertie is revealed to be attracted to women in "Screech Leaches", when it's revealed she developed a crush on her best friend Muriel after the latter kissed her in high school. Until this episode Bertie had only shown attraction to men.
- Rape as Backstory: Bertie reveals in "The Jelly Lakes" that she was molested by a lifeguard when she was twelve, and that it's a key factor to her anxiety.
- Shrinking Violet: Downplayed. Bertie isn't stuck-up, but prefers to keep to herself and not make a big deal of everything (that is, to not talk about openly). It's usually Tuca who often has to speak for her, whether she wants it or not.
- Species Surname: Her last name is "Songthrush".
- Trademark Favorite Food: She's a very light eater in contrast to Tuca and we never actually see her digging into her own pastries, but she's got a special love for spicy chips, even if they make her gassy.
- Trauma Button: She and Speckle's spanking session ends when he calls her a "bad bird."
Friends/Lovers
Speckle Robin
Speckle Robin
Voiced by: Steven Yeun
"Architect, boyfriend, tender shinned, wearer of sensible pants"
Bertie's architect boyfriend, a European robin. Bertie moves in with him at the beginning of the series.
- Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: After a few drinks at Talulah's house, he puts on a see-through shirt. During the drive home, Tuca notices that he's not wearing pants, to which he replies that he will never wear pants again.
- Anthropomorphic Food: Not him, but his grandmother that was turned to a cake and live in his guts (It's complicated.)
- Ambiguously Bi: He stumbles upon Tuca's sexual virtual chatroom/MMO job and plays it, thinking it's some kind of fighting game. He pieces it together a few moments later... and is later shown still playing it and gleefully "showing off" for some other players. While pretending to be Tuca for Figgy in "The Pain Garden”, he’s also flattered by his compliments to “Tuca", although it’s apparently because when he was to get into character he gets really into it.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Rarely in evidence, but he does manage to stop a rampaging jaguar by simply staring it down and firmly telling it to stop.
- Dogged Nice Guy: Deconstruction. At first, he seems to just go along with whatever Bertie wants to be with her, including dealing with Tuca's odd interferences in their relationship, but he eventually gets fed up of it when Bertie is shown to be as dysfunctional as Tuca and prone to leave the fall out on him. This includes making him lose their dream house because the idea of a 30 year fixed mortgage stoked her anxiety.
- Encyclopaedic Knowledge: Of experimental architecture, as he reveals in "Plumage".
- Everyone Has Standards: He's very patient with Bertie's anxiety issues, until she disappears for a week to the Jelly Lakes without calling or texting him. He's at his wits end when she finally returns.
- Extreme Doormat: Explored in "A Very Speckle Episode". Speckle struggles with standing up for himself both at work and in his personal life, his attempts to become more assertive lead to him getting fired.
- Fetish: In "Vibe Check," he confesses that he has a fetish for baking, stemming from his childhood crush on his friend's mom, who was a baker. This is one reason he loves Bertie.
- Gasshole: If someone is going to fart on-screen, chances are, Speckle is the culprit. With carefully selected sounds, according to Lisa Hanawalt
herself. - Has a Type: Before he met Bertie all his exes were according to his sister Dottie "super hot, confident , self-actualized, successful mean girls" - something that makes Bertie feel anxious upon hearing.
- Incredibly Lame Fun: His favorite snacks include plain chips and his idea of kinky porn is a couple moving in together and having respectful, consensual missionary sex.
- Mad Artist: He finds a lot of the buildings he designs for clients to be kind of dull, so he goes all out when Bertie gives him the chance to decorate their new house however he likes.
- Speckle: A house is like music, and this is my noise album!
- Nice Guy: Speckle is almost too good to be true. He is understanding, nice, and always supportive of his girlfriend Bertie.
- Not So Above It All: While he’s usually responsible like Tuca and Bertie he can get roped into wacky shenanigans as well.
- Only Sane Man: He's usually the last to get in on the shenanigans Tuca ropes Bertie into.
- Sidetracked by the Gold Saucer: In-universe. He rather likes gaming, but prefers the side quests to the actual missions. He and his friends find it annoying that the game keeps pushing quests like slaying a dragon on them when all they want to do is grow turnips.
- Stepford Smiler: Hinted at in Season 1, but confirmed in Season 3; he suffers from intermittent depression and frequently feels burdened by all the demands people make of him because of his "Nice Guy" nature. And because he bottles it up, he frequently explodes when he gets too anxious.
- The Friends Who Never Hang: Averted. He spends the day with Tuca at her Aunt Tellulah's house and they get along great. Tuca seems to like him a lot — he's actually seen in her mental harem of "weird crushes" — and they both take turns helping Bertie with her anxiety issues.
Big_Hairy_Stallion_69
Big_Hairy_Stallion_69
Voiced by: Adam Conover
Another participant in a virtual sex chatroom/MMO Tuca briefly works for who comes to her aid when she experiences medical complications from an impacted egg. He later becomes good friends with Speckle.
- Fire-Forged Friends: He and Speckle become incredibly close friends after spending a few hours together in a hospital waiting room during Tuca's ordeal.
- LOL, 69: Played with; he only went with his current username because Big_Hairy_Stallion_68 was already taken.
- Nice Guy: He drives for seven hours to assist Tuca after she asked for help while in pain, even though to him she was just a random stranger he met in an online sex chatroom.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Deliberately invoked by Speckle:BigHairyStallion69: I'll miss you, Speckle.
Speckle: I'll miss you too, Big_Hairy_Stallion_69.
BigHairyStallion69: You can call me Joel.
[The two hug]
Speckle: [quietly and emotionally] No, I never will...
Coach Maple
Coach Meredith Maple
Voiced by: Jane Lynch
Bertie's former swim coach before she quit. She currently lives with her new wife in the shore of Jelly Lake.
- Amazonian Beauty: She is very muscular and quite pretty despite her older age. Tuca pretty much admits she finds her hot.
- Badass Biker: She owns a bike with a pretty sweet paint job resembling a bird's head, and she's pretty reckless while driving it.
- Butch Lesbian: She's very big and burly looking, typical of this archetype, and married to a woman.
- Cool Teacher: Bertie's cool swimming coach, back when she was a kid. By all means, Coach Maple is a caring and supporting mentor.
- Even the Girls Want Her: A given, since she is openly bisexual and married with another woman. Tuca says Pat is lucky she gets to make out with her.
- Masculine–Feminine Gay Couple: She's muscular, athletic and tough, whereas her wife Pat is plump, soft-spoken and artistic.
Pat
Pat
Voiced by: Isabella Rossellini
- Big Beautiful Woman: She's quite plump, and as Tuca notes, "gets to make out with coach Maple whenever she wants."
- Birds of a Feather: Although she's more soft-spoken than Tuca, they possess the same joie de vivre and quickly strike up a bond.
- Don't Explain the Joke: She loves to make jokes, laugh at them, then clarify whatever the truth of the matter happens to be.
- Ink-Suit Actor: Resembles her actress Isabella Rossellini in both physique and facial features.
- Masculine–Feminine Gay Couple: She is a plump, soft-spoken artist, whereas her partner is a tough, muscular swim coach.
- The Owl-Knowing One: Makes beautiful eggshell dioramas and is generally very patient and sensible, dispensing gentle wisdom about craftsmanship.
- Verbal Tic: She hoots whenever she laughs, which is often.
Kara
Kara
Voiced by: Sasheer Zamata
- Arc Villain: Takes Pastry Pete's place as the antagonist of the second season, though her toxic tendencies only become apparent with time. While Pete was an antagonist to Bertie, Kara is an emotional abuser who instead tries to prey upon Tuca, becoming the greatest obstacle for the latter's attempt at a personal journey.
- Big Beautiful Woman: She's on the slightly heavier side and Tuca falls hard and fast for her. In Tuca's Imagine Spot, the dancing figure representing her is ethereal and graceful.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She's initially warm, fun, and like Tuca, seems to be a caretaker at heart. The reveal that she's emotionally manipulative and toxic creeps up slowly over the course of the next few episodes.
- Call-Back: Her character is probably one to the joke from the first season that those in the medical profession are too callous to connect with their patients.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To Pastry Pete. The two are similar in that they're both seabirds who have aggressive personalities that gradually go from "charming" to "ugly", and they both get away with their actions for a period of time. The difference is that Pete is a successful, straight guy who abuses his employees often verbally and even sometimes physically or sexually, showing the obvious evils of the patriarchy and upper class; on the other hand, Kara is a lesbian middle-class woman who abuses her partners almost always emotionally, showing that anyone can be an abusive Jerkass, regardless of gender, sexuality or social status. Pete preyed deliberately on the Shrinking Violet Bertie while Kara preyed on the outspoken Genki Girl Tuca, showing that anyone of any personality can be preyed upon. Kara is also conscious enough of her toxicity to start (gradually) working on it. Pete never changes.
- Fatal Flaw: Selfishness, which is the underlying root as to why her and Tuca's relationship falls apart. There's numerous moments in the season that confirm Kara is somewhat conscious of her apathy toward other people's emotions and has flashes of guilt, but this never amounts to actual positive change because she always rationalizes it to herself. Her old partner was "playing the victim," she self-justifies glancing comments toward Tuca, and she never actually apologizes for her actions, instead trying to downplay them and gifting Tuca with petty gifts. It boils over when she's finally unable to rationalize any longer and Tuca sees her for who she is; at that point, Kara simply turns her back on Tuca with a guiltless shrug.
- Fat Bitch: As mentioned she’s an attractive plus sized seagull but is eventually revealed to be a toxic, manipulative bitch.
- Ignored Epiphany: When she's spotted during the flood and Tuca finally gets her attention, Kara briefly has an expression of worry and horror on her face right before she just shrugs and turns her back. Subverted when Season 3 reveals her to have had another one of these with her new girlfriend, who she was also treating poorly and was considering ghosting. This time she listens, and gets therapy.
- It's All About Me: Kara never seems to respect anybody's viewpoint but her own, which is the fatal flaw in her relationship with Tuca. She frequently badmouths others and acts like her opinion is superior, humble-bragging about being a nurse. She always convinces Tuca that she's in the wrong for voicing her discomfort. She uses her work schedule to guilt-trip Tuca into only sticking to her schedule, then when she does visit the carnival at Tuca's request, she acts like she's above it all and refuses to join in the fun with Tuca. When she finally does claim to care about Tuca's issues and make a promise to help her, she immediately forgets about Tuca so she can have fun with her work friends instead. She later apathetically claims she dumped Tuca because she was "too much" for her and she had to think of herself.
- Karma Houdini: For all the misery she put Tuca through, that ended up being life-threatening, she's last seen taking a pleasure cruise on a hospital ship out of a flooded Bird Town.
- Kick the Dog: She intentionally chooses to not call Tuca for two days, even during a flood, leading Tuca to believe that Kara is in trouble and go for a swim to the lighthouse to find her. Tuca then spots Kara on a ship having volleyball with her co-workers, and upon hearing Tuca calling out to her, Kara, after trying to ignore her twice, awkwardly shrugs and turns away to avoid eye contact instead of responding. This proves to be the last straw for Tuca.
- Lack of Empathy: She treats dying patients on her job as free time instead of a tragedy, which is an acceptable way to handle working in a hospital, and shares pictures of her vulnerable patients freely, which isn't. She also often teases her partners, and would often brush them off as jokes instead of apologizing if she happens to hit a nerve. She does seem to develop past this by the end of Season 3, as she treats her next girlfriend with similar callousness and comes to terms with her abusive behavior. She also shows no ill will while treating Tuca's serious pain, though that could just be her doing her job.
- Never My Fault: She shares to Tuca that her past partners would always "play the victim" in their relationships, hence the reason why they would break up with Kara or why she would end up ghosting and dumping them, all while completely oblivious that her own toxic attitude and insensitive nature were actually the root cause of her breakups. When Bertie runs into and confronts Kara in "The Pain Garden" Kara nonchalantly says Tuca was “too much" for her and she had to think of herself, not even showing any feeling other than apathy when Bertie tells her to get bent. Subverted as "Somebirdy's Getting Married" reveals she did eventually get therapy and address her issues after her current relationship almost fell through in a similar way.
- Passive-Aggressive Kombat: No matter how tense her arguments with Tuca get, Kara will never shout or even raise her voice at her.
- Shout-Out: She's a seagull who's into women.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Season 3 reveals that she eventually regretted her old patterns and decided to go to therapy instead of ghosting her next girlfriend, and fully supports Tuca during her medical issues despite their troubled history.
Dr. Joanne
Dr. Joanne
Voiced by: Pamela Adlon
Bertie’s current therapist.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: She can come across as a bit scatterbrained and maintains a very casual rapport with her patients, but she's also a very good therapist who helps Bertie make real progress on addressing her various psychological issues.
- Fangirl: She's a massive fan of Muriel Nocturna, a horror film director, and is elated when she learns that she was once Bertie's classmate.
- Nice Girl: Offers her clients genuinely helpful advice, and also tries to bond with her clients in a more personable and casual way to help ease their nerves as they discuss their troubles.
- There Are No Therapists: Subverted. While Bertie initially rejects Dr. Joanne's help, she ultimately decides to stick with her upon taking her advice to heart and starts improving with her personal issues.
Figgy
Figgy
Voiced by: Matthew Rhys
- The Alcoholic: By his own admission, he drinks "a lot", and when Tuca sets rules in regards to it when she’s around, he tells her his one rule is to not ask him to stop because he cannot change. He once a week soaks his roots in alcohol, putting him in a horrible drunken state that causes his leaves and bark to fall out, and finding him like this and his refusal to change leaves Tuca to break up with him.
- Amicable Exes: While Tuca & Figgy do break up, they still get along really well. When Tuca reunites with Figgy in the hospital they are very happy to see each other. Tuca still cares for Figgy and tells him to take getting help seriously. Figgy in return shows his gratitude. They're so amicable that they get back together again.
- Foil: To Kara, both being ex-partners of Tuca. Kara is an abusive, toxic, consumptive bitch who forces Tuca to accommodate to her own schedule while leaving Tuca no time for her own, and consistently blames her own problems on other people. Figgy is polite, considerate, and assures he loves Tuca no matter her own problems. It's his stubborn refusal to move past his own toxic Vicious Cycle that prompts Tuca to break up with him, and even after that they remain Amicable Exes, while Kara and Tuca decidedly are not. Ultimately, while both he and Kara suffer from very severe problems that complicate their relationship with Tuca, Figgy has the clout to at least try and work out his problems with Tuca, while Kara doesn't get better until after breaking up with Tuca.
- In Vino Veritas: He becomes more snappish when drunk, and Tuca unwittingly sets him off when she tries to ask him to stop, as it's his one rule.
- Mr. Vice Guy: Played for Drama. He's quite nice and genuinely cares for Tuca, but he also has a heavy drinking problem.
- Nice Guy: Very friendly, and he feels good when he takes care of other people. He loves Tuca and assures her he likes "all of" her. He becomes more snappish when he's drunk and his refusal to quit his heavy drinking habits cause tons of drama, including a temporary breakup, but Figgy is ultimately willing to work through his issues, salvaging his relationship with Tuca.
- Nobody Poops: Technically can, but prefers not to, saying it would be extremely painful and involve a lot of splinters.
- Plant Person: An anthropomorphic fig tree.
Muriel Nocturna
Muriel Nocturna
Voiced by: Victoria Morales
Muriel as a teenager
Bertie's ex-friend from high school, a Honduran white bat. Is now an acclaimed horror director.
- Ambiguously Bi: She kisses Bertie and at times acted quite flirtatious towards her, but when she’s telling Bertie they were never really friends, she claims she was "just messing around" when she kissed her.
- Birds of a Feather: She and Bertie became close friends and got Bertie into being goth.
- Exhausted Eye Bags: Is shown to have them under her sunglasses in the present.
- Freudian Excuse: She dumped Bertie as her friend for growing too clingy and copying everything she liked, despite encouraging her interests on her, telling Bertie she only befriended her out of pity and because she was in a fight with her actual best friend and kissing her meant nothing. Tuca does note however that she was a hormonal angsty teenager when this happened, and Muriel revealed to Bertie when they first met that she was also molested by an older man and had parents who were unwilling to talk about anything unpleasant and instead pawned her off to talk about it to their incompetent school counselor.
- Goth: She dresses in black outfits that she steals from a Hot Topic stand-in, listens to obscure dark music, and embraces her individuality, so much show she’s furious when Bertie wins "Gothiest" in the yearbook, citing she’s not really goth because she likes pink, romcoms and boy bands. Even as an adult, she's found a career making creepy horror movies.
- Hypocrite: Muriel begins to get fed up with Bertie being too clingy and copying everything she likes, the final straw her winning "Gothiest” in the yearbook, but Muriel was the one who gave Bertie her goth clothing and makeup and encouraged her to act more rebellious and even kissed her, which also paints Muriel as kinda manipulative.
- Kick the Dog: When Bertie anxiously apologizes to her at a Q&A at a screening for her newest movie, Screech Leeches, which she believes was inspired by how clingy she was as the titular leeches attach themselves to their victim and dress like and copy everything they like, Muriel doesn’t take much stock into her presence and nonchalantly says it’s not about her and is about her young son copying her, and moves on to the next person.
- Resentful Guardian: Her latest horror film is "Screech Leeches", about leeches who latch on and copy everything you do. Bertie fears it’s about their former friendship, but Muriel reveals she based it off her young son who copies and dresses like her.
- Visual Pun: She's a gothic teenage bat. "Baby bat" is slang for a young newbie goth.
Family
Tuca’s Family
Aunt Talulah
Aunt Talulah
Voiced by: Jenifer Lewis
- Bitchin Sheeps Clothing: She appears to be a pleasant Cool Old Lady on the surface, but she’s actually an Evil Aunt who is financially and emotionally abusive to her niece
- Cool Old Lady: Talulah when she finally appears in person. She's every inch an Older and Wiser Tuca, with money and class, the biggest difference being her drinking to Tuca's sobriety. [[spoiler: Subverted HARD once enough drink brings out her true personality, revealing a bitter, abusive Rich Bitch who controls Tuca through her money and shames her for every part of her life. And Tuca doesn't even protest. She finally crosses the line when she dismisses Tuca's mother as 'worthless' for ostensibly having never accomplished anything in her life beyond raising several children to adulthood.]
- Fatal Flaw:
- Pride. She sees herself as superior to Tuca and Tuca's late mother because she made millions while they lived in poverty. Her pride drives her to emotionally abuse Tuca, driving her away.
- Greed. Despite being a wealthy businesswoman, Talulah never lifted her relatives out of poverty. The check she writes Tuca in "Plumage" is a measly $1,250.
- Formerly Fit: Was slimmer in her youth.
- Hidden Heart of Gold: It's buried deep, deep down there, alright, and she hides it from anyone but Tuca, but she does seem to care about her niece despite all the emotional abuse; when Tuca confesses to her condition which causes her periods to be so painful, Tallulah confides she suffers the same affliction and commends Tuca for trying to look after herself.
- I Was Quite a Looker: She was tall, elegant, and stunning in her prime. She technically still is a looker, her elegance and confidence in her looks completely undiminished; it's her personality that's ugly.
- Jerkass: She's emotionally abusive to Tuca, especially after she's had a few too many drinks. She even takes a shot at Speckle, who's spent the day being gracious and singing her praises.
- Lady Drunk: In contrast to her niece who is The Teetotaler. Catches up to her when she gets cirrhosis by the season finale and has been stuck in the hospital ever since.
- Pet the Dog: In a rare moment of kindness in "The Pain Garden" she comforts Tuca when the latter comes to visit her while she’s in the hospital trying to figure out why she has chronic pain during her periods (which ultimately ends up fruitless and no one can tell her why her periods are so horrible and painful), saying she’s had to deal with doctors being useless/insensitive when it came her body as well, as she was told she had a “mean uterus".
- Rich Bitch: Very wealthy, very arrogant, and very emotionally abusive to Tuca.
- Serial Spouse: She's been married to at least a dozen wealthy men.
- Uncanny Family Resemblance: Looks very much like her nieces and nephews.
Truly Toucan
Truly Toucan
Voiced by: Creator/JackéeHarry
Tuca's mother. She died in a car crash when she was a child, causing Tuca and her siblings to drift apart. She worked in a nail salon.
- Deceased Parents Are the Best: While Aunt Tallulah looks down on and pities her for not being able to provide for her children, citing always being broke, the heat getting shut off constantly, and having no husband, her children look back on her fondly as a single mother doing her best raising five children in poverty before she died too soon. So much so that Tuca's breaking point with her aunt's insults is when she insults her mother.Tuca: You can say whatever you want about me, but that woman put nothing but positivity and love in this world for the brief time that she was in it!
- Exhausted Eyebags: Her appearance in Tuca's mind in "The Mole" show her with these, fitting for someone who had to work her ass off to support all her children.
- Good Parents: Tuca remarks her mom was “crafty" and did her best to raise her children, and they all loved each other regardless of how poor they were.
- Posthumous Character: It's revealed in "Plumage" that she died when Tuca was a child, with "Yeast Week" revealing the cause of death was a car crash and that she died while under operation.
- Strong Family Resemblance: When Speckle sees a photo of her he remarks she looks just like Tuca. She finally appears on screen during "The Mole", and as it turns out, she looks just like Tuca but with eyebags
Terry
Terry
Voiced by: Taraji P. Henson (Season 1), Natasha Rothwell (Season 2)
Tuca's oldest sister.
- Brutal Honesty: She makes a snarky remark about Tuca's drink order, and explains that she'd say the same thing to a stranger, remarking about herself, "I'm a huge bitch!"
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: She's cautious and responsible while her younger sister Tuca is carefree and risky. This creates tension between them in "Corpse Week," especially when Tuca wants to take Terry's daughter out for a yum-or-yellnote and teach her about demons. Despite Tuca's insistence that she's gotten more responsible after going sober, Terry struggles to believe that's true.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Isn't the most pleasant of individuals and has little patience with Tuca and Tulip's antics, but she does care about her little sister and their family deep down, even if she doesn't express it that well.
- Promotion to Parent: She had to raise her younger siblings after their mother died, which is why she resents Tuca's immature behavior — Tuca keeps acting like a child while Terry barely got the chance to be one at all.
Timbourine and Tamarind Toucan (a.k.a. Mayor Tim Tam)
Timbourine and Tamarind Toucan (a.k.a. Mayor TimTam)
Voiced by: Okieriete Onaodowan (Timbourine) and Da'Vine Joy Randolph (Tamarind)
- Decided by One Vote: They're both more than a little resentful that Tuca didn't vote in the last mayoral election. Tuca insists her vote wouldn't have mattered.
- Half-Identical Twins: Though this is just as much a product of the artstyle, with both having the same basic character template as Tuca and their other siblings.
- Mayor Pain: Their complete incompetence is revealed when, during the flood, they ignore warnings that the levees will break, and when they do, they immediately abandon the city.
- Polar Opposite Twins: Ran diametrically opposed campaigns for mayor and are perpetually arguing over every policy relating to how the city should be run. As they put it, "Vote for us and we'll continue cancelling each other out."
- Sibling Rivalry: Their fights involve childish insult slinging, such as calling each other turds.
Desmond
Desmond
Voiced by: Tunde Adebimpe
Tuca's brother. A quiet and bookish food scientist.
- Black and Nerdy: Well, technically a Toucan, however Tuca and her family members are generally characterized as African American and are all voiced by black voice actors, invoking this trope.
- Bookworm: Frequently has his nose in a book and actively uses this to keep out of Tuca and Terry's argument during Corpse Week.
- Nice Guy: He recognizes Bertie's oncoming anxiety attack during Tuca and Terry's heated argument at the dinner table, and offers her a book for her to focus on in order to curb her anxiety.
- Odd Name Out: The only one of Tuca's siblings whose name doesn't follow the same Added Alliterative Appeal template.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: While the rest of Tuca's siblings all share her propensity to be outspoken, outgoing and prone to arguing amongst themselves, Desmond is a quiet, reserved person who tends to keep out of family squabbles.
- The Quiet One: He's pretty quiet, especially compared to the rest of his family.
Bertie's family
Henry and Anna Songthrush
Henry Songthrush and Anna Songthrush
Voiced by: Randall Park and Margaret Cho
Bertie's parents, with whom she has a strained relationship with due to them being emotionally distant.
Tropes applying to both:
- Abusive Parents: Downplayed as they did not act nor do anything outwardly malicious towards Bertie, and are shown to have cheery demeanors, but they made her bottle up all her negative emotions, including her trauma from her sexual assault at the Jelly Lakes, which they handled by taking her to a few sessions with the school counselor (who is shown to be not qualified at all for her job outside of career recommendations) and then never discussed it with her again. All of which is why Bertie is now in therapy trying to process it and actually talk about it, and on a few occasions has mentioned her "mommy/daddy issues". Bertie also off-handedly mentions to Tuca and Speckle when they’re awe-ing her trophies and awards from her youth that she had a lot of pressure on her growing up, likely also a result of her parents. In another episode she reveals they were uptight and they never did anything fun together.
- Adults Are Useless: Instead of helping a young Bertie through her trauma, they never spoke about it with her, or anything “unpleasant" in general, and instead pawned her off onto the even more incompetent school counselor for a few sessions, leaving their then teenage daughter with no emotional support and made her feel like she had to bottle up all her emotions.
- Education Mama: When Tuca and Speckle compliment her on an academic trophy she won while looking through her childhood belongings , Bertie off handedly mentions she had a lot of pressure put on her to succeed as a kid, likely meaning her parents fall into this.
- Elephant in the Living Room: In the present the Songthrush house is covered with garbage, and Bertie's parents keep trying to divert attention from it. Bertie claims that they ignore obvious issues like this all the time, including her sexual trauma, which they only addressed with a few school counselor meetings and then never spoke to her about it again.
- Family Disunion: During their family dinner in "Corpse Week" Bertie lashes out at her parents for refusing to talk about their mental issues and forcing her to bottle up her feelings.
- Parental Obliviousness: They apparently never realized how traumatized their daughter was after being assaulted when she was twelve, and assume she was ok because she visited the school counselor a few times and she excelled acedemically and won awards. When Bertie tells them off for sweeping it under the rug, all her father says is "Well, um, I’m sure it had a big impact on you".
- Stepford Smiler: They aren’t willing to talk about anything negative, from Bertie's childhood trauma from her assault to the fact Henry had open breast surgery months before their daughter visited for the holiday and they didn’t tell her until then. This led Bertie to have to bottle up all her feelings growing up and now she’s in therapy trying to process all of it.
- Strong Family Resemblance: They look almost exactly like Bertie except with slight longer grey "hair" and wrinkles.
- Trash of the Titans: When Bertie, Speckle, and Tuca visit for Corpse Week, it's shown Anna has become a hoarder and she refuses to talk about it. It also works as a metaphor for how she and her husband let their mental issues pile up until they can't ignore them anymore.
Tropes applying to Anna:
- Family Disunion: In ”Fledging Day" (the shows’ universe's equivalence of Mother's Day) Bertie spends the whole day with Anna but things are awkward due to Anna being emotionally distant and being unsupportive and criticizing Bertie's decisions to close her bakery and work for Chef Winter Garcia without being in the public eye. By the end they manage to grow closer after Anna surprisingly is proud of Bertie for wanting to be child free, revealing she worries about Bertie and wants her to live her best life, and after Bertie saves Anna from her old flame wanting to hook up with her again. She even takes a box of Winter snacks that Bertie helped make.
- Happy Marriage Charade: Anna reveals to Bertie that while she loves him she always wondered what would’ve happened if she never married Henry and had her, as Henry is not a very romantic man and Anna by her own admission was smoking hot back in the day with a "great ass" (while Henry's is a five at best) and wishes he’d treat her better.
- It's All About Me: When Bertie is calling out her parents over not wanting to discuss negative topics, and it’s a large part in why she’s in therapy, her mother scoffs that she doesn’t understand how her childhood was “so terrible", and halfheartedly "apologizes" that she wasn’t a "perfect mother", failing to realize the point of why Bertie is upset.
- I Was Quite a Looker: Anna remarks she used to be hot and had a "great ass" before marrying Henry, and is a bit self conscious at showing her nude body at a spa due to how it’s changed in old age.
- I Want Grandkids: Anna dismissively brings up Bertie not being married or having children yet, and an old woman at the spa they visit questions her about it. Subverted once Bertie confesses she and Speckle have decided to be child-free and Anna starts crying…because she's actually proud of Bertie making her own choices and she herself always wonders what could've been if she hadn't married her father.
- Parents as People: She comes off as emotionally distant and unsupportive, and is shown being critical and dismissive in Bertie's devisions, such as closing her bakery and working under Winter Garcia where she receives no publicity, and her and Speckle not being married yet, to the point where Bertie literally shrinks with shame when she does. However, after Bertie reveals she doesn't want kids, Anna cries tears of joy because she's happy Bertie is making her own choices and knows what she wants, and she reveals she just worries about her and wants her to live her best life, as she herself has some regrets with marrying Henry and wonders what her life would've been like if she hadn't settled down.
Tropes applying to Henry
- Furry Reminder: Henry had "open breast surgery," a bird analogue to open-heart surgery.
- Going to the Store: After a teary eyed Bertie runs to her old room after confronting her parents, Bertie's dad jumps out of a window claiming to get ice, prompting Tuca to snark that that's what they need.
- Parental Obliviousness: During one of her flashbacks in "Screech Leaches", in which she has an argument with her mom about her new goth style and giving her a passive aggressive remark over dumping her on the school counselor to talk about her trauma, after she leaves the car Henry pops up from the back seat and cheerfully wishes her good luck on her geometry quiz.
- Talk About the Weather: Henry tries to divert attention away from the family's mental issues by talking about how mild the weather has been recently.
- Therapy Is for the Weak: When Bertie first tells her father she’s been seeing a therapist, something she’s been looking forward to revealing, he laughs and says she doesn’t need it because she’s "normal". He says the same about him and Bertie's mother, despite them clearly having some repressed mental issues.
Speckle's family
Dottie
Dottie
Voiced by: Michaela Dietz
- Family Theme Naming: She and Speckle are both named after spot patterns.
- Obnoxious In-Laws: Subverted; while Bertie worries she might be one, she and Dottie bond over the course of her bachelorette party.
- Nice Girl: Easily one of the most down-to-Earth people in the entire show; at worst, she's slightly neglectful and a bit of a party girl. She's even able to bond with Bertie after a night on the town, and she does everything in her power to look after Bertie and Tuca after they're robbed.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Appearance-wise, she's basically Speckle with some makeup and a bun. Tuca's mind even has her labeled as "Girl Sprinkles"
Neighborhood
Bruce
Bruce
A perverted old vulture who lives one floor below Bertie.
- The Alcoholic: Is often seen with a beer bottle in a paper bag.
- Chivalrous Pervert: Downplayed. While he's an absolute creep, he doesn't seem to do much worse than make gross flirty comment and will back off agreeably if given a hard no; even Bertie isn't afraid of him. He plays this especially straight in "The Dance," where he tells Tuca that a relationship should be a meeting in the middle and that Tuca is a wild and sexy bird whom Kara should be showing off proudly.
- Dirty Old Man: Appears to be significantly older than our protagonists and is almost always trying to flirt with them.
- Groin Attack: In "Leveling Up", he becomes wealthy from a cash settlement that is restitution for an incident where a bus ran over his dingus.
- Hidden Depths: In "The Dance," he gives Tuca some very sound (albeit innuendo laden) relationship advice, then casually muses to himself that he wishes he could be a better man for her. He shrugs this off with an "Oh well!" and proceeds to jack off on the Ferris wheel.
- Kavorka Man: He's utterly repellant in both appearance and personality, but that didn't stop Tuca from banging him. Twice.
- Masturbation Means Sexual Frustration: He's too perverted to get action most of the time (barring from a drunk Tuca), but is implied to get himself off quite often. When Tuca tells him to "beat it," he tells her it'll be for the third time today as he stretches his shoulder, and also beats off on the Ferris wheel after wishing he could be a better man for Tuca.
- Vile Vulture: Is a perverted, decrepit turkey vulture. However, this turns out to be a subversion because he's the least vile of the pervert characters, as he never goes beyond making dirty comments.
- Visual Pun: He's a literal and figurative vulture who preys upon attractive women. Ends up being
Fridge Brilliance when he turns out to be an okay guy; vultures are gross, but amicable and beneficial.
Dapper T. Dog
Dapper T. Dog
Voiced by: John Early
"Fervent citizen velocipede
Tuca's upstairs neighbor, a tall, theatrical dog.
- All Gays Love Theater: There are framed Playbills all over his apartment, and he's established as Camp Gay from his first appearance.
- Butt-Monkey: He's profoundly unlucky.
- Camp Gay: Effeminate, kerchief-clad, fond of theater and first seen pining over another man.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: He's dapper and also a dog.
- Foil: Humorously enough, to Bernard the butler. Both are dogs with sophisticated air around them, but while it's genuine for Dapper, Bernard is quite prone to breaking out into actual dog behavior.
- Howl of Sorrow: Prone to breaking out into these whenever he's particularly distraught.
- Interspecies Romance: In his first scene, he's dramatically pining for a human named Henry.
- Large-Ham Announcer: He narrates the Leaf Raking Tournament with great enthusiasm and detail.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Speaks this way at every opportunity. Arguably good for a playwright, not so good when he tries to hold down a job as a road sign writer.Dapper Dog: (writing a stop sign) Dear automobilist: You are hereby mandated to discontinue the generation of forward motion vis-à-vis your motorized carriage expeditiously!
Draca
Draca
Voiced by: Shamir
A plant woman who lives in apartment 5B. She's cool and mysterious.
- Animal Lover: Has an alarming number of pet turtles, adopts Tuca's pet jaguar after Tuca sets it free, and is immediately distressed by the new building management's "no pets" policy in season 2.
- The Beastmaster: After being set free by Tuca, her former pet jaguar immediately runs to Draca's apartment and spends the rest of the series living alongside her.
- A Dog Named "Dog": A dracaenca fragrans named "Draca".
- The Faceless: Her "head "is just the leaves of her plantstalk, though she does have small, hardly seen mouth on her stem.
- Home Nudist: Casually takes her top off in her living room, even while entertaining Tuca and Bertie.
- Nice Girl: Is pretty friendly and welcoming compared to her far louder neighbors.
- Plant Person: She's an anthropomorphic Dracaena.
- The Quiet One: She mainly "talks" by rustling her leaves.
- Smoking Is Cool: Draca is often smoking a cigarette. This adds to her cool and mysterious aura.
- Statuesque Stunner: Her entire body is taller than her apartment's doorway.
Conde Nest
Dirk
Dirk
Voiced by: John Early
- Asshole Victim: His chauvinism almost always results in some Laser-Guided Karma.
- Character Development: He eventually starts dating the HR lady and at least trying to be less of a raging douche, with patchy progress.
- Cocky Rooster: started off as a misogynistic jerk who sexually harrasses his coworkers, including Bertie, in line with the stereotype about his species.
- Hate Sink: Unlike Pete, he isn't really that threatening, but that doesn't make him any less hateable.
- Later Inverted due to his Character Development proving he clearly has a heart somewhere in there.
- Hidden Depths: In season 2 it revealed that he requested a cake that says 'You Are loved' with Bertie even catching him muttering it to himself.
- Jerkass: He steals Bertie's ideas, sexually harasses her and looks absolutely bored when she calls him out for it.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Is trying to become this. Whether or not he's actually having any success kind of depends.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Apparently, Dirk has been harassing women for a long time before Bertie finally called him out for it.
- Official Couple: Becomes one with HR Lady after the Time Skip.
- Pet the Dog: He goes out of his way to save Holland when he insists on staying onto his workplace's rooftop during the flood.
- Straw Misogynist: Pretty clearly doesn't think of women as much more than things he can flirt and harass freely. Later Inverted on account of him going through Character Development.Dirk: As a man, it's so nice to finally have my voice heard, you know?
- Took a Level in Kindness: After the Time Skip, he's revealed to have realized his actions were awful, and is attempting to become a kinder person.
- Visual Pun: Dirk is a rooster - a literal cock, if you will.
Holland
Holland
Voiced by: Richard E. Grant
Bertie's blue jay boss.- Benevolent Boss: He's clueless and doesn't take well to being shushed, but is a generally affable guy who treats his employees well and take Dirk's sexual harassment very seriously once he's made aware of it.
- Going Down with the Ship: Tries to perform when office building was getting flooded, luckily Dirk put a stop to it.
- Stepford Smiler: Bertie asks him if he has any therapist recommendations and he responds that he's British and over 60, and thus very happy — and then forces back a tear.Holland: Come on, Hollie, be a good soldier. Your ex remarried, she's happy!
Pastry Chefs
Pastry Pete
Pastry Pete
Voiced by: Reggie Watts
"Professional profiterole preparer, persnickety patisserie proprietor, penguin"
A penguin who owns a popular bakery. Bertie takes an apprenticeship under him.
- Affably Evil: He's charming and friendly, and even after he's revealed as an abuser, he maintains his calm tone of voice and charisma, allowing him to keep his career and still attract customers. It's part of what makes Bertie's attempt to recover so difficult.
- Allegorical Character: Of systemic and abusive patriarchy. Pastry Pete appears to be a well-liked, well-behaved celebrity chef at first, but he's actually a manipulative abuser who thrives off exploiting his—exclusively female—employees, taking physical and sexual advantage of them as a means of exerting his power over them. Pastry Pete gets away with all of this not only because he's rich and famous but because—as repeatedly implied earlier in the series—society expects a powerful man like him to get away and even be rewarded for his predatory behaviors.
- Arc Villain: He's the primary antagonist of Season 1. His physical abuse triggers traumatic memories in Bertie and forces her to confront them head-on, he destroys her burgeoning relationship with a fellow chef who ends up suffering his abuse, and overall he's just a domineering asshat who actively stonewalls Bertie's business when she breaks out of his business.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: At first it seems like his stern nature comes off as just part of his job and Pete is an otherwise reasonable guy, but it's later revealed that he has no qualms using his success to prey upon female admirers and monopolize the entire baking industry in Birdtown.
- Easily Forgiven: After being a massive creep to multiple women, he makes an apology video and his business is shown to be back to booming almost instantly.
- Karma Houdini: ZigZagged. In season two, his career is back on its feet after a Youtuber Apology Parody and he continues to be abusive to other employees. He does exit the first season being shat on by a giant hawk, though, so we do get a little satisfaction at his expense. Later on, in Season 3, his next ambitious project—a bakery made entirely out of bread—gets completely gobbled down by a giant rubber duck in seconds after its reveal. Furthermore, his attempt at drawing attention away from his predatory behavior by collaborating with famed female baker Winter Garcia falls flat due to Winter choosing not to show up at the bread bakery's opening, knowing this will make him look like an ass desperately trying to fabricate respect for women.
- Mean Boss: At first it's downplayed, as he's harsh and a bit condescending but still attractive and a helpful mentor to Bertie. Eventually Bertie sees him as the disturbingly flirtatious, controlling jerk he is, and after she quits, he guilt-trips her, stonewalls her new business, and even threatens her physically.
- Ripped from the Headlines: His "I'm Sorry Strudel" is similar to Mario Batali's infamous apology statement for sexual misconduct, which included a recipe for "pizza dough cinnamon rolls."
- Stout Strength: He has a noticeable gut, befitting as he’s a penguin, but is quite muscular especially in his arms, something Bertie takes notice of.
Baker Barb
Baker Barb
The assistant of Pastry Pete.
- Chekhov's Gunman: She confirms in the final episode of season one that Pete has been denying Bertie territory within the town.
- The Quiet One: She's not a very talkative bird. Even when Bertie greets her in "Plumage", she doesn't return her greeting and continues working in silence. However...
- Suddenly Voiced: She finally speaks in the season one finale, "SweetBeak", where she informs Bertie to try selling her baked goods somewhere else, as Pastry Pete holds a monopoly on baked goods in Bird Town.
Dakota
Voiced by: Amber Ruffin
A yellow canary from the country that moves to Bird Town in "The New Bird". She befriends Bertie at their job at Pastry Pete's.
- Beware the Nice Ones: She is sweet, idealistic and slightly naive to the point of parody, but unlike Bertie, she stood up to Pete right away when he started harassing her and then she called out Bertie for not warning her about him.
- Country Mouse: The country to Bertie's city.
- Foil: Set up as one to Bertie. Bertie is nervous, Dakota is carefree, but they both work at Pastry Pete's and have similar personality beats, down to their coping mechanisms. Dakota snaps at Pete for sticking her face in a boiling pot for some sort of hazing ritual, while Bertie got turned on and masturbated earlier in the season when it happened to her.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Dakota doesn't appear after her debut episode. Not even in "Sweet Beak" when news of Pete's sexual harassment gets spread, when it would make the most sense.
- Wide-Eyed Idealist: A very tongue-in-cheek version. She came to the city with two suitcases "full of socks" and looked towards everything she and Bertie did with fleeting optimism. She does, however, have her limits, and she snaps when Pete tries to act like a creep, and when she realizes Bertie never warned her.
Winter Garcia
Voiced by: Justina Machado
A seasoned pro in the field and owner of Winter Snacks, she recruits Bertie as her apprentice in season 3.
- Stern Teacher: She's got a very limited tolerance for bullshit and is quick to snap at Bertie when she feels the need, but she's equally forthcoming with praise.
Planteau
The Mayor
The Mayor of Planteau
The mayor of the town of Planteau, who happens to be a potted plant. His species is apparently worth a lot of money.- Mushroom Samba: He and his daughter both produce a very powerful hallucinogen that they can spray at will, as Speckle finds out.
- Plant Person: Averted. In a show full of anthropomorphic plants that walk and talk, he is literally just a potted plant. He's certainly sentient, otherwise he wouldn't have a position of power, but it's unclear to what extent.
- Suddenly Voiced: After Speckle returns the cutting that was stolen from him (which happens to be his daughter), he actually talks and thanks him for it. Speckle might have been hallucinating the whole thing, however.
