Nigel

Nigel is a character from the Rio franchise.

Nigel is a sadistic sulphur-crested cockatoo who used to be a TV star, but was replaced by a Parakeet, causing him to have a strong hatred for "pretty birds."

In the XP4 fics, Nigel made his debut in the XP4 Heroes Coalitions - Mission Chronicles.

Appearance
Nigel has a slender, muscular appearance and is very tall, taller than Blu and Jewel. He has patchy, ragged greyish-white feathers, brown eyes, and pale red bags under his eyes, which are somewhat bloodshot. He also has unusually long and sharp talons for a cockatoo, and his feathers often molt. Like other Sulphur cockatoos, Nigel has white and yellow crest feathers on the top of his head.

In Rio 2, Nigel wears a bird-sized Elizabethan vest. He also now has a large bald patch on his chest, which is concealed by the Elizabethan vest, presumably severely injured from his encounter with the plane's propeller from Rio.

Personality
Nigel exhibited highly anti-social behavior.

He is very violent, constantly seen using physical force to injure or terrorize other characters. For instance, he threatened to give Mauro and his subordinates "flying lessons" in order to coerce the marmosets into helping him find Blu and Jewel. After the battle in the samba club, Nigel arrived at the scene and terrorized Tiny into telling him where the blue macaws went, by threatening to "pop" or "crack" her head. He has also pinned various characters, including Blu and Jewel. At the end of the first film, he pinned down Blu. Jewel told him to let him go but instead, Nigel shoved Jewel over and a cage landed on her wing. Nigel said "Oh pity, now we have two useless flightless birds." and laughed.

Nigel also liked to capture birds for smugglers, once he strangled Jewel and Marcel told him to bring her back alive. He also tried to capture Blu and Jewel after their escape, he succeeded the first time but then Blu sent him out to the plane's propellers which probably explains why he wants so much revenge on Blu.

He is also extremely sadistic, often taking great joy and pleasure in others' suffering. For example, he was shown in the smugglers' lair to terrorize the captured birds and he later ridiculed Jewel when her wing was injured. In both situations, he laughed maniacally in response to seeing his victims' fear and injury.

Nigel is utterly ruthless; he shows no pity or mercy to his victims and enemies and seems to hold no remorse for his evil deeds.

His two most prominent passions are performing and being a villain. He also has a funny, though malicious, sense of humor.

Nigel is also intelligent, vindictive, cunning, cruel, malevolent, arrogant, and greedy.

Abilities
Nigel is noticeably stronger than most other bird characters in terms of physical strength, considering both his size and sharp talons. He obviously has knowledge about his physical advantage and uses this to his own ends throughout the franchise.

Apart from physical superiority, Nigel is also more devious than average birds, enabling him to sometimes outwit even humans. For example, he used a cloth soaked with Chloroform to disable the guard at Tulio's aviary in an attempt to capture Blu and Jewel.

His intelligence is very high; he is smarter than the smugglers and most other characters. His intelligence is only challenged by his nemesis, Blu.

He is also a skilled trickster, being able to fool Tulio and his employees into thinking he was sick and injured.

Nigel also has incredible singing and acting skills, shown in his songs "Pretty Bird" and "I Will Survive." He got these talents during his past role as a TV star.

Nigel's level of speed is incredible for a cockatoo; almost like that of a bird of prey. His flying skills were great in the first movie, but after his accident, his flight abilities have been crippled, leaving him unable to lift himself more than a couple of inches off the ground. Despite this, he is still quite swift.

Nigel also has endurance, shown to be high enough to survive an extreme electric shock. His endurance was also high enough to survive a plane crash, though he lost most of his feathers and was forever crippled from a natural flight. He also survived an explosion with only minor burns.

Trivia

 * Nigel is sometimes thought to be the secondary antagonist of Rio: He is not because although Marcel is his master in the first film, Nigel is a far more prominent character and is the true main enemy of Blu. However, he was the secondary antagonist of Rio 2, Big Boss had bigger plans than he did.
 * His career ended probably somewhere between 1982 and 1983.
 * His true full name is Cocks "Nigel" Cockatoo. It should be noted that "Cock" means a rooster, or male chicken, and has nothing to do with a cockatoo.
 * However, Cock is the first four letters of cockatoo, which might have got his name.
 * Although people think Sulfur-crested Cockatoo's diet consists almost entirely of insects or plants, Nigel was seen eating a chicken leg in the film, showing that birds are also omnivores (but in real life, a cockatoo would get sick for eating an entire chicken leg, so it should be given in moderation). It is mistakenly said by Tipa to be cannibalism; (though Tipa himself is not very intelligent) it isn't because cannibalism is defined as eating flesh from the same species (which was a chicken and not a cockatoo). Despite this, it still rather unusual for a cockatoo to be fed chicken from most owners (but in occasion, they need a little protein).
 * When Nigel was a telenovela star, he starred in TV shows called Fly Hard, All My Flock, and As the Cage Turns, and participated in the Carnival parade. He was also once popular all across South America.
 * The extended version of the song "Pretty Bird" mentions that when Nigel was pushed out of fame, he was replaced by a parakeet from Paraguay called Petricious. This is the reason he was drawn to criminal activities. However, in both the long version and the shortened version, it also mentions that "they got a pretty parakeet to fill [his] shoes."
 * He is the only bird to be plucked of nearly all his feathers.
 * Like Blu, Nigel was a pet and unable to fly. However, although he was a pet like Blu, he was trained to do a certain task (smuggling birds) and Blu wasn't. However, Blu just does his daily routine (before he moved to Rio) and helps Linda with other tasks.
 * Surprisingly enough, he is somehow damaged by the Mighty Eagle's earthquake in Angry Birds Rio, which is unusual being that he is never even close to the ground in levels when you fight him.
 * Nigel is without a doubt, one of the evilest Blue Sky Studios villains ever.
 * Nigel was the only one who pretended to be sick just to fool his enemies.
 * He likes to torture or terrorize exotic birds (mainly macaws and parakeets).
 * Nigel is the only villain in the franchise to have his own song.
 * He is also the only villain to be a type of bird.
 * A tree frog named Gabi is in love with Nigel in Rio 2.
 * For Rio, in the McDonalds Happy Meals toy, there was a toy of him with keys in one of his wings.
 * In Rio 2, Nigel wears a bird-sized vest to hide a large patch of missing feathers on his chest.
 * When Nigel grabs a bird, he tends to grasp his talons around its neck, as he does when he captures Jewel and tries to kill Blu on the plane in Rio.
 * According to Blue Sky Studio's Q&A on Twitter, Nigel was originally going to be in a circus in Rio 2, and his minions included a jaguar and an ostrich, along with Gabi and Charlie.
 * According to Carlos Saldanha in an interview, Nigel is his favorite character.
 * In the early design stages of Rio, Nigel had a metal claw on his left talon.
 * Nigel has three different names in the international versions of the film "Rio" and its sequel. the names are "Pepillo" (Latin America), "Hector" (France), and "Miguel" (Italy).
 * Nigel mocked Blu for being a useless flightless bird. And near the end, he calls Jewel and Blu Two useless flightless birds. Ironically, at the end of the first film, he became a useless flightless bird himself.
 * Also, when Blu and Jewel were introduced to a group of toucan kids, one of them rips out Blu's feathers. This foreshadows Nigel's fate at the end of the film.