Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (UK prison) a veteran prisoner, a recidivist.

1877

Five Years’ Penal Servitude 32: They depended on [...] the fact that in nine cases out of ten an ‘old bird’ would betray himself.

2. a person who has become knowing through experience, esp. an experienced thief; thus wily/cunning old bird.

[1702		T. Brown Letters from the Dead to the Living in Works (1760) II 4: I told the Hibernian, that old birds were not to be taken with chaff].
1802		G. Colman Yngr Poor Gentleman IV i: Mark! ’tis an old bird – The Honourable Miss Mac Tab, in a jog trot.
1837		Thackeray Yellowplush Papers in Works III (1898) 333: Old birds, you know, not to be caught with chaff, like young ones.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 262/2: Old birds are not caught with chaff. From Dr. M---, an old bird.
1876		M.E. Braddon Dead Men’s Shoes II 114: An artful old bird!
1880		Cornishmen 4 Mar. 4/5: At the Port he had some old birds who are not to be caught by chaff [...] nor yet so ‘thick-skulled,’ as Pat says.
1889		B. Mitford Fire Trumpet II 198: This old bird was with me several years.
1891		F.W. Carew Autobiog. of a Gipsey 369: I was rather too old a bird to be caught with a bit of cheap flattery.
1904		Kipling ‘The Comprehension of Private Copper’ in Traffics and Discoveries 164: ‘There were no terms made for my father.’ ‘So ’e made ’em ’imself. Useful old bird.’.
1911		Gem 16 Sept. 13: It should have been couched in far better language. Queen Elizabeth was a severe old lady, not a tough old bird.
1923		Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves 65: I had never realized [...] what a formidable old bird he was.
1937		A. Christie Murder in the Mews (1954) 59: A wary old bird like me.
1943		M. Harrison Reported Safe Arrival 131: I’m too fly an old bird ter be caught wiv lime.
1953		J. Thompson Savage Night (1991) 58: He’s a pretty sharp old bird.
1977		(con. 1949) J.G. Dunne True Confessions (1979) 141: Maybe feeling that way was Seamus Fargo’s edge. A tough old bird.
1991		C. Hiaasen Native Tongue 249: The old bird shot me.
2000		Guardian G2 28 Mar. 22: It’s now obligatory for any Nobel Prize Winner to act out the crazy old bird routine to look the part.
2013		Financial Times Mag. 6 July 8/4: Wow, you don’t look too bad [...] you’re one of those old birds.

3. a person, usu. old.

1849		Bell’s Life in Sydney 24 Mar. 3/3: She flew to Mrs. Danelly's coop, and finding that old bird at home, she began to cackle at her most vociferously.
1886		R.L. Stevenson Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde 10: ‘[S]ome bland old bird (the last you would have thought of) is knocked on the head in his own back garden’.
1915		J. Buchan Thirty-Nine Steps (1930) 115: He was exactly the kind of satisfied old bird you will find in every suburb.
1924		P. Marks Plastic Age 17: I have a hunch that college is n’t anything like what these old birds say it is.
1934		D.L. Sayers Nine Tailors (1984) 106: Uncle’s a comic old bird.
1971		R.D. Pharr S.R.O. (1998) 12: What the devil kind of game was this slick old bird trying to run on me.
1981		P. Reading ‘Legacies’ in Tom O’Bedlam’s Beauties 48: Peregrine’s popping off like that must have upset the old bird, I suppose.
1996		(con. 1946) G. Pelecanos Big Blowdown (1999) 93: The old bird behind the counter had to get up out of his chair.
2000		R.G. Barrett Leaving Bondi (2013) [ebook] There was [...] this old bird in the Blue Mountains [...] Kicked the bucket.
2001		N. Green Shooting Dr. Jack (2002) 75: The old bird hadn’t stayed.
2017		G. Gilmore Headland [ebook] ‘Some old bird with bothing to do but call the fuzz’.

4. (also old birdie) as a form of address.

1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 28 Feb. 12/2: Right, old bird; I know. You and me wasn’t born yesterday. This little war’s as good as a domino club to you, and I want to stand in. When spons. And tinned salmon is a flyin’ about, I want to cop my little portion. […] You and me’s no chickens at this game.
1908		A.N. Lyons Arthur’s 253: What do you think they’ll give ’im, ole birdie?
1914		‘Bartimeus’ ‘A Picturesque Ceremony’ in Naval Occasions 239: Pass me a cigarette – there’s a box just there ... Oh, thanks, old bird.
1923		‘Bartimeus’ ‘Chops and Chips’ in Seaways 101: You’d better have a drink, old bird.
1930		K.S. Prichard Haxby’s Circus 131: You’ve got to be careful what you do these days, old bird.
1945		G. Fairlie Capt. Bulldog Drummond 195: Rally round, old bird.