Target stores are struggling to keep their $5 plastic-foam and polyester birds on the shelves as fans spark huge hunts for the limited-edition items.
Known to fans as ‘birbs’, customers have been scrambling to buy the new collector’s item as soon as they go on sale at 3am ET – in a frenzy akin to that of the Beanie Baby craze of the 1990s, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Fans then brag about their findings on social media – and join Facebook and Reddit groups to share their tips.
Theresa Hoffman, a 24-year-old assistant math professor in upstate New York, makes TikTok videos about the birds, ranking new collections and showing off some of the custom ones she’s made, such as a Father’s Day bird and a crayon themed bird.
She has also got others into the collection.
‘Every workplace I’ve ever had, I’ve gotten people addicted to the birds, so now former bosses still text me “Let me know when the new birds drop,”‘ she said.
Target started selling the birds in 2012, and now releases new birds for different occasions.
It also sells tiny bird tree ornaments, bird-themed advent calendars and accessories.
Hoffman has now bought 75 of the birds, while Jackie Kaelble, a 37-year-old marketing communications manager in St. Paul, Minnesota, creates ‘birdscapes’ in her living room for her collection of more than 150 birds.
Her summer birds are currently having a party in the Barbie pool, with a hot dog cart nearby.
Kaelble is so devoted to the birds that she got a tattoo above her knee of a 2021 Valentine’s Day model – a strawberry bird named Poppy.
Alyssa Fine, a second-grade teacher in Madison, New Jersey, also has 62 birds that she uses as a storytelling tool for her students.
‘In a time when people are worried that kids are lacking in some of those things because they’re so addicted to tech, it was really fun to fan those creative juices and just kind of let them do whatever they wanted,’ she said of her students.
The ritual became so popular at the school, Fine said, that she and other teachers would go ‘bird watching’ to see what they could find at Target.
She says she is now fighting the urge to buy even more.
‘My rule now, especially now that I have one for every month of the year, unless it’s cuter than the ones I already have, I can’t buy more,’ she said.
Jill Sando, Target’s executive vice president, now says the decade-plus popularity of these birds ‘is another example of the creativity, playfulness and magic our in-house product design team brings to their work.’
She noted that more selections will be introduced throughout the year ‘including a new reunion collection that’ll be revealed soon.’
But Connor Clay – a 24-year-old content creator, says part of the hype around the birds ‘is people seeing other people struggle to get them.
‘It makes other people want to get them.’
But this year’s Halloween birds, which debuted in July, have left some collectors disappointed.
The birds normally wear clothes, but still have beaks.
Yet this year’s collection all have cartoon-looking mouths, leading to what one fan has dubbed ‘mouthgate.’
‘It’s OK to be upset that all of the birds have mouths,’ DeAnna Allen, a 30-year-old dog sitter in Jacksonville, Florida, who has bought 86 birds since late 2020.
‘We don’t even have the option to buy one that doesn’t have a mouth.’
Some fans have resorted to ‘bird surgery’ to remove the mouths, but Allen said she does not think she will do that.
Still, she said, ‘I think it is reasonable to be disappointed in the birds this season.’