Little Birdie

A creature known to the Galactic Federation on the Bottle Ship as little birdie is a small, rodent-like organism seen in Metroid: Other M, and is the juvenile stage of Ridley's life-cycle. It was genetically cloned from DNA found on Samus' armor prior to the game's events. Not knowing it was spawned by Ridley's DNA, the scientists thought it lacked potential as a bioweapon, and instead began treating it as their pet, giving it its nickname. Some time later it was found playing dead in its cage and escaped after it brutally murdered the unfortunate scientist who discovered it.

Samus Aran first encounters it after she leaves the Breeding Room (the creature's original chamber) in the Biosphere, as it tries to get on top of a bright pine-cone like object, presumably a type of fruit. It scurries off after noticing Samus staring at it, but as she turns to walk away, it emerges from the brush and stares at her.

Later, a piercing howl is heard in the Kihunter nest, sending the surrounding Zeros into panic and enraging a swarm of Kihunters into protecting them and attacking Samus. After she defeats the hive, the creature appears and begins feeding on the honey from the broken nest while roaring at Samus as she walks by. She refers to it as a "disgusting beast" due to its parasitic nature of using other creatures' strength to its advantage, and also by the way it greedily consumes the honey.

After Samus battles a previously unknown lizard-like creature, Samus and the 07th Platoon find Lyle KIA, covered in green blood. Samus follows the trail of blood, where she finds the little birdie leaning against an automotive vehicle. She nudges it, which then causes it to fall over, revealing that it was only a shell that was recently shed. It can be assumed that once little birdie consumed Lyle, it triggered the creature's transformation, and outgrew its "shell", an ability Ridley is known to possess.

Trivia

 * Samus seems to detect the creature may be more than it seems, (albeit before she knows what it is): "And as I studied the violence this creature had wrought, I felt something in the air- the presence of a dark intelligence."
 * The little birdie shows intelligence when it played dead to lure the scientist into its cage so it could kill him and escape. Later, it "uses" Samus to destroy the Kihunter hive, allowing it to harvest and consume the honey. Also, the adult stage, Ridley, has proven to be intelligent.
 * Interestingly, Little Birdie's escape (and murder of the scientist) appeared to have taken place mere moments before the start of MB's rampage. Whether the two incidents are somehow related to one another is unknown.
 * This makes Little Birdie the first being on the Bottle Ship to have rebelled and broken loose.


 * Little birdie can be heard howling four times before Samus calls it a "disgusting beast".
 * When Samus first meets the creature, it tries to climb atop the bright pinecone object and, humorously, falls on its back. Once it finally gets up, it shakes its head as if dazed, making a cute and funny image knowing that this just happened to Ridley.
 * The fact that little birdie was trying to eat a fruit and later consumes honey suggests Ridley is an omnivore, at least in this stage of his development.
 * Little Birdy's 3 stage development into the Mystery Creature and then ridley may be a refrence to "Pokemon", annother nintendo game.