Beaky Buzzard is a buzzard (although he more closely resembles a vulture or condor) with black body feathers and a white tuft around his throat. His neck is long and thin, bending 90 degrees at an enormous adam's apple. His neck and head are featherless, and his beak is large and yellow or orange, depending on the cartoon. Beaky bears a perpetual goofy grin, and his eyes look eternally half-asleep. Mama Buzzard appears similar to Beaky, though she is considerably larger than most Looney Tunes characters (dominating in height over Beaky, Bugs and Sylvester). Both Beaky and Mama Buzzard first appeared in the 1942 cartoon Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid.

Buzz is an anthropomorphic buzzard that can really buzz and, in most of his appearances, was a con artist looking for a way to swindle someone, usually Woody Woodpecker, out of money or food. In other appearances, Buzz has been a cowboy, a carnival barker, a soda jerk yet he still remained a royal pain to Woody. For most of Woody's career, Buzz was the primary foil for Woody, bearing roughly the same relationship to that character as Yosemite Sam had to Bugs Bunny in Warner Brothers' animated shorts from the same era. The character's appearance changed dramatically throughout the years with a vest and five o'clock shadow that disappears, different feather colors, and head feathers that disappeared entirely and reappeared sporadically.