Yardbird

Yardbird is a word that has had several informal meanings.

Yardbird is post-Second World War African American slang for a prisoner, from the notion of prison yards.

During the Second World War, in the armed forces it meant a basic trainee, as they spent most of their time in the yards.

B-17 bombers: Yardbird was the nickname given to two United States Air Force B-17 Flying Fortress bombers which flew combat missions over Europe during the Second World War. Both bombers were based at RAF Molesworth in England, as part of the 303d Bombardment Group (Heavy).Yardbird (41-24602), piloted by captain John W. Farrar (360th Bombardment Squadron), was shot down by flak and German fighter aircraft on 29 May 1943, near Pleubian, France.Yardbird II (42-5620), piloted by 1st Lt. Paul S. Tippet (360th Bombardment Squadron), was shot down by two German fighter aircraft over the North Sea, returning from a successful raid over Emden, on 2 October 1943, with all eleven aboard killed in action.

It was one of the group's most successful bombers having completed over 43 missions.

In the Deep South of the United States, yardbird was a colloquialism for the domestic chicken. In one explanation for American saxophonist Charlie Parker's nickname being "Yardbird", jazz trombonist and blues singer Clyde E. B. Berhardt in his autobiography I Remember: Eighty Years of Black Entertainment, Big Bands, states:

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