Yankee Doodle Pigeon is the elusive quarry of the Vulture Squadron led by Dick Dastardly in the Saturday Morning animated TV series *Dastardly and Muttley in their Flying Machines.*

Almost nothing is revealed about Yankee Doodle Pigeon in the series. We know that the character is male and a courier for a country's military forces. We know that the character must have incredible stamina as well as flying talent since he proves capable of endlessly outrunning (outflying?) aircraft as a matter of course and still have the energy to play its bugle. It is not clear what country Yankee Doodle Pigeon is an agent for though it's implied by his name and by the style of the Vulture Squadron aircraft that he is on the side of Allies during World War I.

In the series, he functions most as what Alfred Hitchcock would call a Maguffin or what the Medieval poets would have called a Questing Beast, existing only as something for which the protagonists strive.