He was born 20 August 1946, in Knoxville, Tennessee, and was raised in Nashville and Murfreesboro. He earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Middle Tennessee State University in 1968 and subsequently taught at Castle Heights Military Academy for four years, after which he earned a law degree from the University of Tennessee, from which he graduated in 1975. In 1976 Bird began working for the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in the southeast district, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. He remained with INS for his entire career and retired in 2007. Bird became active in and familiar with the gay world in the southeast beginning in 1965. He met his longtime partner Clark Lemmons in 1976.