Learn about endangered birds while playing this beautiful, challenging, card-laying, dice-rolling game. There’s luck, there’s strategy, there’s a whole lot of birds, what’s not to like?!
Inspired by The Book of Birds, and with a serious message at its core, this game is gently informative while being fun. You don’t have to be a bird-lover to enjoy The Game of Birds.
A bird in the hand (or several actually)
This game is all about helping endangered birds through conservation and the aim of the game is to move birds from the Red list (highly endangered) or Amber list (endangered) to the Green List (not endangered). You’ll do this by taking cards from the board and playing them in front of you to build a personal display of birds. Points are awarded for birds that are protected with additional bonuses for exceptional conservation. The player with the most points at the end of the game is the most successful conservationist and therefore the winner!
The Birds Cards each have a category based on the “Seven Wonders” of birds: Feather, Flight, Nest, Song, Egg, Beak, and Migration. You’re aiming to make a 7 x 3 grid of birds in front of you, containing all 7 Bird Wonders with 3 cards of the same Wonder in each column.
There are some interesting game mechanics to keep every game different and occasionally scupper your strategy. Like the 6 dice, which you’ll roll at the beginning of every round. The 2 black dice either restrict what type of card you can play or have a negative effect, like discarding a card at the start of your turn. The 4 white dice give you a benefit for the round. You’ll pick one at the beginning of your turn, which can help inform your strategy for the round such as playing an extra Bird Card or removing a Threat Card from your display.
Which brings me onto the next spanner in the works: Threat Cards. Threat Cards are shuffled into the Bird Cards at the start of the game, and appear in the 9 cards on display on the board. If you pick up a Threat Card, you have to play it into your personal display immediately, and it takes up a space that would otherwise house a bird. They subtract 3 points from your score at the end of the game, and they come up quite frequently so be careful!
How to score birds
When you manage to play a second or third of the same bird species in your personal display, you have been particularly successful in protecting this species, so you gain Bonus Tiles which increase the value of the cards, to gain extra points at the end of the game. When you complete a row of all 7 Bird Wonders, you receive a Conservation Medal worth 7 points at the end of the game. You can gain up to 3 Conservation Medals, but it doesn’t count if you have Threat Cards as part of the row.
After 8 rounds in a 2 or 4 player game, or 9 rounds in a 3 player game, the game ends and you score up your points to determine the winner. Add up the points from your cards, and any Bonus Tiles and Conservation Medals. Remember to take 3 points off for every Threat Card in your display. The player with the most points wins the game.
A little birdie told me
Rumour has it that if you manage to fill up all 21 spaces in your personal display without any Threat Cards, the game ends immediately, as this clearly marks you as the most successful conservationist! (In all the games I’ve played, no one has come close, so I’m yet to be convinced this is possible.)
Keep an eagle eye out
The black dice can really change the game, as some can be quite a blow to your strategy, like not being able to play birds on the Red List or having to discard a card from your hand at the beginning of a turn.
You really are at the mercy of the cards. You can have a clear plan of what you want to do, but if the wrong cards come up in the wrong places, it can be quite frustrating.
Be careful of using too many cards too quickly. If you pick up too many Threat Cards, or use the white die to lay 3 cards rather than 2, you can use up your cards too quickly and tie yourself in knots later in the game.
This old bird’s reflections
It’s a quick game to play, and fairly easy to learn and explain to others. However, some rules aren’t very clear from the Rule Book, especially around the Bonus Points which I found quite confusing to decipher.
The quality of the board, cards and dice feels good. You get the impression that it’s a game made with good intention and thoughtfulness overall. On the other hand, there are a few things that didn’t seem very well-designed, like there not being enough Scenario Cards for the number of rounds you play, and there not being a turn-tracker so it’s easy to forget how many rounds you’ve played. The artwork is truly lovely though, and each bird has a little quote from the book about that bird which is a thoughtful touch.
I personally find the card laying quite satisfying, it feels really great to make a pair, and especially a set of 3 birds. It’s not overly competitive or too stressful. Every game feels quite different, so it has the replayability factor. The luck of the dice and cards means that everyone has a shot of winning. Overall, it is a lovely game with an important message.
