Rules, Translations, & FAQ

The Wingspan rulebooks are available for download. There is also a full rules video by Watch It Played.

The European Expansion rulebook is here.

If you have rule questions, please post them in the comments on this page, create a thread on BoardGameGeek, or ask them in the Wingspan Facebook group. The official Stonemaier Games response and solution to first-printing typos is posted here.

Rule Questions

Can you discard birds from your player mat?

No, once you play a bird, it’s permanent.

When I gain food from the birdfeeder, do I choose all of the dice at once, or one by one?

Choose dice one at a time. This creates the potential for you to reroll in between dice selections.

My bird card says ‘WHEN ACTIVATED: Gain 1 [food type] from the birdfeeder, if there is one.‘ There’s another bird card that says I can gain a specific food “if available.” Can I reroll if there’s only one type of die face in the feeder?

Yes, regular reroll rules apply whenever you have the opportunity to gain food (see “Managing the birdfeeder”).

When activating “migrating” birds that can move from one habitat to another, does the action token move with them? Can they move even if they’re the only bird in the original habitat?

The action token stays with the original row, as that’s the action you chose for this turn. And yes, even if the bird is the only bird in the original row, they can fly over to another habitat (the point is just that they can’t move if there’s a bird card to their right).

When a bird says that I can “repeat” another bird’s ability in the same habitat, how does that work?

Basically, it means that you can re-activate any other “when activated” bird in that habitat. It doesn’t matter if you’ve already activated that bird or not this turn.

Automa: Who goes first each round, you or the Automa?

For each of the 4 rounds, you always go first and the Automa always takes the last turn.

Is the percentage on the Omnivore Expert bonus card correct?

No, it should be 16%, not 10%.

Does “prairie” count as a term for the Cartographer bonus card?

Yes, it counts.

What does the Photographer score for 4-5 birds with colors in their names?

This is a typo. Instead of 2-3, it should say 4-5.

Should the Spotted Sandpiper be worth 5 points, not 4?

Yes, 5 is correct.

Is there a list of all bonus cards in the base game?

  • Omnivore Expert
  • Viticulturalist
  • Fishery Manager
  • Rodentologist
  • Bird Feeder
  • Food Web Expert
  • Visionary Leader
  • Ecologist
  • Historian
  • Forester
  • Prairie Manager
  • Wetland Scientist
  • Oologist
  • Breeding Manager
  • Wildlife Gardener
  • Nest Box Builder
  • Enclosure Builder
  • Platform Builder
  • Falconer
  • Bird Counter
  • Anatomist
  • Photographer
  • Cartographer
  • Large Bird Specialist
  • Passerine Specialist
  • Backyard Birder
General Questions

What are the card sizes and quantities?

There are 212 cards in the game, each at the 57x87mm size.

How do I know which printing I have?

Look at the number to the left of the panda icon near the bar code on the bottom of your box (English printings only). The update pack is only “needed” for the first and second printings.

This is what the first printing code looks like (1712-1764):

This is what the second printing looks like (1812-2078):

This is what the third printing looks like (19003):

This is what the fourth printing looks like (19014):

This is what the fifth printing looks like (19019):

You know you have the 7th printing or later (which include the swift-start pack in the box) if you see this at the upper right of the box bottom:

What are the plastic containers for?

Two of the containers are for the food tokens; the other two are for eggs (see the diagram on the side of the box bottom). When playing Wingspan, you can use both the tops and bottoms of each container, creating 8 separate piles of tokens so players can reach them easily.

Why are so many of the birds in Wingspan from North America?

These are the birds the designer knows best, so she focused on them for the core game. However, the plan is for each expansion to focus on birds of a different continent.


Yes, the insert fits sleeved cards (that’s a standard feature for all Game Trayz inserts). The one exception may be if you buy really thick, premium sleeves, as the height of all sleeved cards may be too tall. The tray will be full of sleeved bird cards, so expansion cards will need to be kept in plastic bags (they’ll still fit in the box).

Is it language independent?

No, quite the opposite: Wingspan is heavily language dependent.

Does Wingspan only include birds from North America?

Most of the birds found in the core game are predominantly found in North America. However, each expansion will feature a different region: We’re hoping to explore Europe, Africa, Asia, South America, and Australia/NZ.

Why isn’t there any player interaction in Wingspan?

Wingspan actually has quite a bit of interaction: The dice you choose from the dice tower (and when you choose to reroll them), the bird cards you choose (if you take a face up card, you’re taking it away from your opponents), the end-of-round goals (when playing on the green side of the goal mat), and quite a few bird cards that result in other players gaining food, drawing cards, etc.

An easy test for player interaction is to ask yourself, “Could all actions be taken simultaneously, scaled to any player count?” If the answer is no, there’s at least some player interaction in the game.

What I think you’re asking for–and what most people seem to mean when they ask for “more player interaction”–is more *direct conflict*. That simply isn’t what Wingspan is about; it is, after all, a game about managing a bird sanctuary. :)

Will the game be released in other languages?

Yes! Our partners will announce their versions when they’re ready. Currently the game has been announced by Feuerland (German), Matagot (French), Maldito (Spanish), 999 Games (Dutch), and Delta Vision (Hungarian).

Are there any unofficial Wingspan accessories or digital products?

Leave a Reply to Jamey Stegmaier Cancel reply

527 Comments on “Rules, Translations, & FAQ

  1. Hello! We love wingspan! We are having a disagreement regarding the Anatomist bonus card. Do birds such as the Blue Grosbeak and Loggerhead Strike count? Either way, can you please explain why? Thank you!

        1. The horned lark doesn’t have a horn, so it’s not on the list. To be technically correct in the rules, follow the list strictly (and the European Expansion has some additions in its rulebook). That will be the easiest way to answer any questions. But if you disagree, feel free to play it however your table agrees to play.

  2. How many birds can be played when it says play a second bird in …. habitat? Can you use they one after the other? What’s the limit? Ruby-Crowned Kinglet then Downy Woodpecker then House Wren ? Would this be possible?

  3. Impossible to play i don t speak english ihave the rule in french in the box i want you ‘re video with somebody playing

  4. Hi, I have a question on the rules/play. The turkey Vulture for example gains a food from the feeder when an opposition players killer bird “succeeds”. Question is what constitutes “succeeds”? Is it when a bird is played, is it when it gains a food on the card or a tucked card. Please help as we cannot figure how this should be played…

    ps. Awesome game, can’t stop playing, though my girlfriend says it is missing green parakeets from the Euro Expansion that have made their home noisily in West London parks!! :)

    1. A predator bird “succeeds” when its action is successful (not when it’s played). So yes, that usually means either cacheing a food or tucking a card.

        1. Awesome thanks Jamey, and by the way it’ll be awesome to show my friends a screen shot with the response from the publisher when we play again. Yall’s customer service is above and beyond the service I have ever seen from any company in any industry.

          P.s. I have scythe and wingspan, should I buy charterstone or tapestry next, knowing that I do plan to buy both which order should I buy them?

  5. If I choose the lay eggs action, can I choose not to lay an egg on a nest when there are available nests? I ask this because there is a around goal where it counts birds with no eggs, and laying some can disqualify a player for that goal.

    1. Mike: While we don’t have release dates after the initial launch of any product, we’ll have Wingspan back in stock on our webstore in July, and stores will have some copies in June and more in July.

      1. Ok. Thank you. I’ve watched so many videos and read the rules so many times and read so many posts it feels like I’ve played the game several times already, even though I have my copy pre-ordered. 😀

  6. In the Euro expansion it says that the teal end-of-round goals “trigger at the end of each round.” It doesn’t specify that they only apply to the round in which they are played, so we’re arguing about whether they can only be used once in “that” round or in “each” round that they are on the mat.

    Here’s the long example of how it came up: At the start of the game we turned a round 4 end-of-round goal that was “birds in grasslands.” One player played the Eurasian Green Woodpecker (round end power: counts double toward round goal) in round 1 expecting to collect the bonus at the end of round 4. Since multiple players finished with 5 birds in the grasslands, we actually encountered two questions: 1) Does the “counts double” power of the woodpecker played in round 1 count in round 4?; 2) Can you ever claim a 6th bird in any habitat using that power?

    Thanks for your answers and for the best game ever.

    1. Round-end powers activate at the end of each round. And yes, “this bird counts double” powers could give you a virtual 6th bird in that habitat when you’re counting birds.

      1. Thanks, Joe! There’s a lot of quibbling over that “each.” So, to be absolutely clear, once a bird with a teal round end power is played, its power activates at the end of each subsequent round, not just the round in which it is played, right?
        Thus, a Eurasian Green Woodpecker played in round 1 could activate 4 times if it qualified for all 4 round end goals?

  7. Does “Turkey” count as a geography term for the purposes of the Cartographer bonus card since the origin of the name is from a bird imported from the Levant?

    1. Officially, no. Only the listed terms count for Cartographer. But some tables have decided to houserule this. (Elizabeth studied the etymology of the bird’s name and decided against including it in the list.)

  8. Can a brown power be activated more than once. If not how does one show that a particular power has been activated?

    1. If you play a bird that has you draw 1 and discard 1 at the end of your turn, can you tuck your last bird thus having no cards to discard? Or would you have to save a card to tuck to complete the brown power?

        1. I don’t think the question was about the ability to tuck a card, but the requirement to return a card at the end of turn. I would have assumed that a card would need to be reserved in order to discard one at the end of turn in order to fulfill the requirements of the brown power that was activated

          1. Thank you for the correction. I got the card confused with other cards with a similar power. If you’re talking about a bird like the Great Crested Grebe in the European Expansion, the appendix explains how to handle this. The card says “WHEN ACTIVATED: Draw 1 for each empty card slot in this row. At the end of your turn, keep 1 and discard the rest.” And the appendix clarifies, “These cards should be kept separate from the other cards you draw and your bird cards in hand. They cannot be spent during this turn. But to keep the game moving, you can sort through them at the end of your turn and let the next player start their turn.”

            If we’re talking about a different card than that, let me know specifically which one and I can answer further questions.

          2. I have 3 cards played in the wetlands and no cards in my hand. I draw 2 cards from the deck and move to Clark’s grebe who let’s lets me draw 1 bird, if I do discard 1 at the end of the turn. So I draw one card giving me 1 more bird card total of 3 birds in my hand. The next bird is a common chiffchaff where I can choose 1-5 birds in this habitat. Tuck 1 from my hand behind ea. I tuck all three in my hand behind ea bird. Now I have no cards in my hand and the last bird is a white power so nothing happens. Is this a legal move because I did not qualify the second part of Clark’s grebe which says discard a card from my hand at the end of your turn.

          3. Thanks for the specifics! You do not have to hold a card in your hand to discard. If you end the turn with no cards, that’s ok!

          4. One more specific question but now I think it’s is allowable due to your last answer. I am drawing bird cards and draw 1. I move to my cube to the red-winged blackbird who lets me tuck a card from my hand behind this bird. If I do, also lay 1 was on this bird. If my blackbird’s nest is already full of 3 eggs, would I be able to tuck without laying? We interpreted that because you can’t complete the lay an egg, you wouldn’t be able to activate this brown power

  9. I have a question that I found an answer for on Reddit, but my mom won’t accept anything less than an answer from the game creators themselves, so I hope you wouldn’t mind answering this for us. :)

    Say you have a bird in the forest, for example, the Eastern Screech-Owl: “Roll all dice not in birdfeeder. If any are mice, gain one mouse and cache it on this card,” and you use the gain food action to take the two remaining dice out of the birdfeeder so now it is empty and all five dice are out of the birdfeeder. My understanding is that the moment the birdfeeder is empty, you put all the dice back in before activating any bird powers, meaning that there are no dice to roll for the owl’s power. My mom thinks that you activate bird powers first, then put the dice back in the feeder. Do you use the “roll all dice not in birdfeeder” powers first, then replace the dice, or do you replace the dice and are not able to use the power?

    1. When the bird feeder is empty, you immediately re-roll all the dice before doing anything else. So the most dice the Eastern Schreech-Owl could roll outside the feeder is four.

  10. Hi,

    We’ve just played Wingspan for the first time and loved the finish, pace, gameplay and the ease of play.
    We found a deck of cards not mentioned in the rule book in the box. The deck has gears on the back and depicts … some round specific modifications. Where can I find the rules for these cards?

    Best regards

    1. Hi Niels! Those cards are explained in the Automa rulebook. They’re used in the single player game.

  11. Hi!
    Thank You for this wonderful game! :)
    I have a question. Player has a bird that can “move to another habitat”. This bird has eggs on the bird card. If it moves to another habitat, does it lose or does it keep the eggs? In real life the bird would make a new nest in it’s new habitat. It would not take the old nest along.
    Please, clarify!

      1. My interpretation of this is that the nest doesn’t change, the habitat changes, such as a dam is built turning grassland into wetlands.
        I also had the idea of a white power saying “choose a player to pick one of their birds to loose all of their eggs”. The automa would loose a cube. (If it doesn’t exist yet)
        (I can hardly wait to recieve my pre-ordered copy!)

  12. LUV Wingspan. Brilliant game. Totally addicted during quarantine. Rule question for certain powers: If your mat prevents you from playing part of a power, does that prevent you from playing the full power? Examples:
    – Bushtit brown power is: “tuck a card, If you do, also lay 1 egg on this bird”. But if Bushtit already has max 5 eggs laid, then you cant lay another egg, and therefore you cant tuck the card?
    – Red-legged Partridge: Lay 1 egg on each bird in this column. But if 1 bird in column already has max eggs, then the partridge cant lay any eggs on any birds, because it is prevented from laying an egg on at least 1 bird in the column?
    We interpret the rules strictly like this, unless phrases such as “may” or “up to” are included in the power. Are we on the right track?

    1. Thanks, Jeff! For your questions:
      1. You don’t have to lay the egg if you can’t. You do have to lay the egg if you can. Either way you tuck first.
      2. You can still activate this bird even if one of the birds in the column has max capacity eggs.

      Generally in Wingspan you can elect to not do something beneficial to yourself. This allows for both of your examples to work in the player’s favor.

  13. Hi and thanks for replying my previous question. I’ve got a new one, thanks in advance.

    When the bird at the most left, says that I can “repeat” another bird’s ability in the same habitat; as I am resolving the actions from left to right, does it mean I can not use that “repeat” because I haven’t used any brown power yet to be able to repeat it? Thanks again

    1. Check out the “rules questions” above on this page. This is what is says about your question:


      1. Thanks for the reply. I’ve checked the rulebook and explications above before asking but with my friends we were hesitating and I wanted to be sure (our reasoning being: it is overruling the logic of going from the left to right and repeating an action that you couldn’t have already made). Thanks for clarification.

      2. I would suggest instead of the word ‘repeat’, use ‘mimic’ or ‘copy’. Repeat implies the action as having already been done.

        1. We considered that during the design process, Mike, but we didn’t want players to think that you’re copying the bird itself–you’re using using another bird’s ability.

          1. Synonyms of synonyms. You’ll get questions/interpretations no matter what word you use.
            Also, thank you for the facebook group suggestion!

  14. Hi! We love the game, have been playing it for two weeks straight. ALthough, there is one minor issue we cannot figure out: when you activate a bird that says you have to cache your gained food on it can you only activate it once throughout the entire game? Or is it possible to cache more then one food on one bird? Thanks for the answer!

    1. Thanks Lilla! For any activated ability, including caching food, you can activate it (when applicable) throughout the game. So you could end up with a pile of cached food on such a bird (just as you can end up with multiple tucked cards under birds that tuck cards or multiple eggs on a bird).

  15. We are confused about the End of Round goal: Sets of eggs in all there habitats… Does this mean that if I have one card in each habitat, with two eggs on each card, that I have two points? OR does it mean I have to have at least one egg on each card and I get a point for each column of cards? In order to get two points, I would need at least 2 cards with an egg on each of all three habitats? If I had six cards, two in each habitat and I had a pair of eggs on each card, is that worth 2 or 4 points? Also, is there a page somewhere with all the corrections? I bought my game in December, so perhaps by then my game already had all the corrected cards included.

    1. Hi Mary! I’m going to explain it in a different way and then go back to how the rule book explains it. Think of it like this: count the number of eggs in your three habitats. Compare those three numbers and the lowest number will give you the number of sets you have.

      The rulebook explains it something like this: 1 egg in each of the three habitats equals 1 set. If you have 4 eggs in the forest, 2 eggs in the grassland, and 5 eggs in the wetlands, then you have 2 sets total. (I don’t think this part was confusing you, but it doesn’t matter how many birds there are in each habitat, just the number of eggs on those birds.)

      If you bought your game in December, it is completely up-to-date. Any errors were long since fixed by then.

  16. Regarding bonus cards. If it says “birds that eat cherries” do birds with the any food (wild card) count? I assumed yes, since these birds can eat cherries, but the detail on bonus card specifically says “any bird with a cherry symbol.”

  17. 3 questions.
    1.) Can I do the 2 for 1 food exchange on bird abilities like the Sandhill Crane. It has the discard 1 grain to tuck 2 cards from the deck. Can I 2 for 1 if I don’t have the grain to activate it?
    2.) When you Activate a bird ability like the Blue Jay’s for example; “Gain a grain from feeder if available and you may cache it”. Do I have to cache or is it actually giving me the option?
    3.)For the “Once Between Turns” ability; does it still work after the last person of the round finishes their turn?

    1. 1. For the Sandhill Crane, you must discard a [seed] to be able to tuck two cards from the deck.
      2. “You may cache it” means you have a choice. Either keep it in your supply or cache it on the bird. The choice cannot be changed later.
      3. Yes, “Once between turns” is just shorthand for “it resets after each of your turns.”

  18. Hi, I have a question about the European Robin – When Activated: From the supply, gain 1 food of a type you already gained this turn. Does this basically mean that whenever I choose to gain a food I can immediately gain another token of the same type?

    1. “When Activated” powers only happen right when they’re activated. So you don’t get double food some other time, you only get one food of a type you already gained that turn when the European Robin is activated.

      1. Yeah that’s what I mean – I gain a food token by placing the action cube at the end of the top row, and then when I move the cube to the left I activate the Robin power – allowing me to take the second identical token. Am I getting this right?

  19. When a brown power is activated and prompts me to tuck a card from my hand, do I have to?

    this keeps happening where I’m planning on playing a bird soon but in order to do so i need to first lay eggs or gain food and the next thing you know I’m being made to tuck the card instead.

  20. If an opponent triggers an ‘everybody draws one food from the bird feeder’ ability do you *have* to take one food? (Just thinking about food blocking, etc).

    1. You’d have to let me know the exact wording on the bird you’re talking about, but players can generally decline a benefit.

      1. So for example Anna’s Hummingbird: ‘Each player gains 1 [die symbol] from the birdfeeder, starting with the player of your choice.’ So if your opponent activates the ability, asks *you* to pick first can you refuse? Or are you obliged to take a food?

        1. I’ve never seen anyone decline, but going with the general rule that a player can decline a benefit, I’m going to say any player can decide not to take a food from the feeder during the activation of Anna’s Hummingbird (they of course won’t get a 2nd chance to take food during that single activation).

          1. It makes sense to me. If by choosing a food I enable someone else to reroll the dice for a more favorable food, then I could actually gain a small advantage by leaving them undesirable food in the feeder, especially if it is near the end of the game, and they just needed a particular food to play one more bird before the game ends. Sometimes an entire endgame strategy depends on a having a particular set of food to play a particular bird to gain particular bonuses, etc.

          2. It’s an interesting question. I would argue that the player who triggered the brown power is the one entitled to the benefit.
            If I am not the player who triggered the power and refuse to take a food, I’m declining a benefit to myself for the sake of denying a potentially larger benefit to the player who triggered the power.

            I think allowing someone to decline taking a food is outside of the regular “a player can decide not to take a benefit” rule (because the benefit should be to the player who activates the brown power) and seems a bit contradictory to the spirit of the card that lets the player who activates the power choose who should take the food first. Maybe Jamey or Elizabeth can chime in?

          3. I’ll just chime in to back up Joe on this one. Hard to imagine it being good for you, but sure, you can pass up the food if you really want to be that person.

          4. Thanks a lot Elizabeth! I agree with Joe that I’ve never seen anyone decline but that was because we played that bird according to the wording on the card (“each player gains…” not “may gain”). Also, in the appendix “The hummingbird’s owner decides which person gains the first food”.

            I also agree with Caracara that this can be quite important in late game situations. In fact, we had a situation recently where someone chose another player to go first because they needed a specific food to play a bird on their last turn, that food was not currently available in the feeder, and an additional food was of no benefit to the player who had to go (well, so we thought!) first. Anyway, I would probably suggest to change the wording on the card and in the appendix for future editions.
            (And I think we’ll house-rule that one and will keep playing according to the wording on the card for now.)

  21. The Piliated Woodpecker says “All players lay one egg on any one bird with a cavity nest. You may also lay one egg on one additional bird.” Does that mean that you cannot put two eggs on one bird with a cavity nest when you play this card?

    1. Yes, the first egg must be laid on a cavity nest and the 2nd egg must be laid on a different cavity nest bird.

  22. Question about “once between turns” at the end of round 4… If you have used all 5 of your turns in round 4, and on your opponent’s final turn it activates one of your pink powers (ex: lay an egg), do you still gain that power? Or since you technically have no turns left, is the power forfeited? Thanks for any clarification!

    1. You can activate it between your last turn and the end of the game. “Once between turns” is just shorthand for “resets after your turn.”

  23. I have a question regarding pink card action. My husband tucked a card, I have the pink card “Snow Bunting”, I tucked a card and drew a card, my husband whats to tuck a card behind his pink card “European Goldfinch”, immediately after I tucked my card. Is this even possible? I thought he could only use his pink card when I tucked a card on my turn. Thanks in advance for an explanation. We love this game!!!

    1. You are right, Joy. Pink cards activate (once) between your turns. So they can’t activate on the pink card owner’s turn, and only activate during other players’ turns.

  24. For Name related Bonus, are the points awarded per bird you have or just the flat amout. For example if I have 3 bird with geography in the name to I get a bonus 9 points end game or do I get 3 points!

    1. For Cartographer, if you have 2 or 3 birds that qualify, then you get 3 points. If you have 4 or more birds that qualify then you get 7 points.

  25. I’m checking about the birds that have no food cost.

    Can they be played just by paying zero food, or do you have to have no food tokens in your personal supply before the no cost bird can be played?

  26. How is the ethologist bonus card in the EE supposed to work? Is it the total number of one colour in a row or the number of different colours in a row multiplied by 2?

    1. The Ethologist bonus cards means that you’ll choose one of the three rows of your birds at the end of the game, and then get 2 points per power color in that row (of the 4 types of colors, including no power/white). That means you can score a maximum of 8 points with this card if at least 4 birds have a different power color in a single row.

      1. Thank you! My partner just won by two points for having 8 white cards in a row because that’s how we understood it. Thanks for the clarification.

  27. 1: regarding greylag goose’s teal power; does its 3 grain food-cost count as 6 for the end of round goal “food cost of birds”?
    2: regarding the die symbol vs. the “color-wheel” symbol when gaining resource from feeder, is there any real difference? e.g. american redstart has a “color-wheel” symbol
    3: regarding red-bellied woodpecker; is its brown power two actions or one? a confusion arose when a player thought that you could keep the grain in your personal supply, another player argued you had to cache it. the card seems clear, but any clarification would be appreciated.

    sorry to post so many questions! love the game. maybe one day a latin american expansion. i know there are already many neo-tropical migrants represented, but would love to see more.

    1. 1. The Greylag Goose counts double only if the end-round goal is counting birds. “Food cost of birds” is counting food, so it does not double.
      2. No difference.
      3. You gain the food and then you have a choice to either keep it in your supply or cache it.

      No problem about the questions. They’re easy to answer this way. Have fun!

  28. How is the Red-Backed Shrike power played with Automa? Do I automatically receive a worm?
    Is there a FAQ for Automa questions about individual birds somewhere?

    1. Hi David! The 2nd to last page of the European Expansion has the Automa rules for these “steal power” birds and other issues that come up with some expansion birds. It’s pretty handy! Basically for the Red-Backed Shrike (and other similar birds), you can only “steal” from the Automa if it has any cubes on this round’s goal tile (but don’t remove the cube). Otherwise you gain nothing from activating it. And of course the Automa never benefits from your bird powers, so she wouldn’t take a food from the birdfeeder afterwards.

  29. Hi! I have a question. My boyfriend and I just got this game and in our first time playing he got two water birds: a yellow headed blackbird and a barn swallow. Both have a 3 egg maximum. Both allow for a tucked cards when activated. He played this to his advantage and racked up 20 extra “tucked” cards. It was an overpowering amount that I’ve read online is impossible to overcome especially if played in the beginning rounds. Is there a limit to the tucked cards? If not maybe it’s a variation we can add next time so it’s not unbeatable.


  30. When using the Snipe power I (All players draw a card from the deck) does the deck also include the face up cards on the tray?

  31. Hi there! Love this game so much. My husband and I play every day and have a “score board” going. It’s helped keep our spirits up in quarantine and has gotten us into birding on our daily walks. So thank you so much for the amazing game!!

    My question is: can you discard multiple food tokens for multiple eggs at the end of the “lay eggs” row? (also as it applies to eggs for cards / cards for food)

    Thanks again!

    1. Hi Cassidy! I’m so glad Wingspan is brining you joy during this time. :)

      As for your questions, you can only do that conversion one time.

  32. Question about Pink “Once Between Turns” actions:

    For pink cards that say “When another player takes the “gain food” action” (ex. Eurasian tree sparrow) or “When another player takes “lay eggs” action” (ex. Brown-headed cowbird), do these only activate if another player plays their meeple in the Forest (for the gain food action) or the Grassland (for the lay eggs action)? OR, can these pink powers be activated anytime someone gains food or lays eggs (from an activation power on another bird card in their turn, say for this example if these cards were in the wetland)?

    We’re wondering because the pink Snow Bunting (which activates tucked cards) is clear and states “for any reason”.

    Thanks in advance!

    1. Those pink powers that mention the “lay eggs” and “gain food” action refer to one of the 4 basic actions in the game, not from card effects. So a card that allows laying of an egg would not be the “lay eggs” action.

  33. If start by choosing gain food and and then activate this power, “each player gains one food token from the birdfeeder” and you make the first pick and after that the only two that are left shows the same face, do you re roll it before the next player takes from the birdfeeder?

    1. The player has a choice to reroll if all the dice show the same face AND that player is about to take food from the feeder. Just having the same face doesn’t cause a reroll. It’s a choice and the player must be about to take food.

  34. When you place a bird sideways and you have the ”Birds that only live in wet” bonus card, does the sideway card count as two cards because the unavailability to place 5 unique cards.

  35. If I only have 1 vacant space left in a habitat (4 spaces are filled), can I play a bird in that vacant space if the card says “When played, play a second bird ….”?

  36. Cetti’s warbler counts double toward end of round goal. How is this regarding the “Sets of eggs in habitat” If you only have Cetti and another bird in the water habitat, does Cetti count double so that you can get 3 sets if you have 3 birds in each of the other two habitats. (granted that you have eggs all of your 8 birds).

    1. Cetti’s Warbler, and other birds with the same power, only count double for end-round goals that count birds. “Sets of eggs” counts eggs. Another example of an end-round goal that doesn’t apply is “Food cost of birds.” If it had been, say, “birds in X habitat” and Cetti’s Warbler qualified, then it would count as two birds for that end-round goal.

      1. Knut: Keep in mind that the sets can include multiple eggs on one bird. So, you just count the number of eggs in each habitat, independent of how many birds they are placed on. You’re counting eggs, not birds. This has been addressed in the questions before (Look for the answer on January 7, 2020 at 9:44 pm, or search for the word “sets” on this page.) and is addressed in the rules.

        That said, Joe’s answer about the eggs on Cetti’s warbler not being doubled remains. Same thing for eggs for any other goal. You don’t double the eggs. The rules state this.

  37. Do other players have to reveal how many cards they have in their hand? Couldn’t find an official answer, but this will definitely need to be resolved before my kids can play another game with an end of round goal of total number of cards in your hand!


    1. Hi again, Therese! Wingspan hasn’t been published in Swedish yet. So there is no official Swedish rulebook.

  38. When can a player at their discretion take some but not all of the resources to which they are entitled by some bird power? For example:

    * If I activate the Red-Legged Partridge’s brown power (“Lay 1 [egg] on each bird in this column, including this one.”), can I lay an egg on some birds in the column but not others? (I might want to do this, for example, if I have a Black Redstart on my mat [“Choose a habitat with no [egg]. Lay 1 [egg] on each bird in that habitat.”])?

    * If I play the Northern Flicker and activate its white power (“Gain all [invertebrate] that are in the birdfeeder.”), can I leave some of the invertebrates in the birdfeeder? (This could be advantageous, albeit mostly in contrived situations.)

    One can ask the analogous question about the Audouin’s Gull’s brown power (“Draw 2 [card] from the deck. Tuck 1 behind this bird and keep the other.”), though for card-drawing powers the question is largely academic, as there is rarely (if ever?) a reason to draw fewer than the maximum number of cards.

    1. As a general premise in Wingspan, you can take less of an action beneficial to yourself. So yes, you can take fewer than “all” invertebrates from the feeder with the Northern Flicker. And the others apply in the same way.

      This premise applies as long as there is not a conditional statement in the bird power. For instance, if it said “Do [action1]. Then if you do, also do [action2].” You can’t do action2 without first having done action1 (but you can do action1 without doing action2 if you wish).

  39. We have a rules question about the European Expansion: Some birds, like the White Wigtail, have a round end power that says “If you used all four types of actions this round, play another bird.” Our question is this: if you are using that power to play another “round end”-powered bird, do you then instantly get to use your new bird’s round-end power? Or do you have to wait until the next round to do it? My wife says one thing, I say another. Thanks!

    1. Round end powers (teal) can be activated in any order you wish. So if one teal power allows you to play a new bird, and that new bird has a teal power, you can activate the new teal power in any order with your remaining teal powers during the same round-end.

      1. The argument was that the last cube plays constitutes the end-of-the-round, and therefore the newly played power would only be eligible next time.

        1. Nope, you can activate all round-end powers that are available, even if they’re added during that round-end.

  40. Hi! We have a question..
    One of my partner’s birds has a brown power saying “if a wheat is available in the bird feeder you may cash it on their card”
    Currently there is only a fish.
    Therefore in my opinion he is unable to use his brown power as there is no wheat available.
    But he feels he should be able to re-roll the dice to see if a wheat does come up as in the rule books it says “if the bird tray is ever empty throw all 5 dice back in. If the dice in the tray all show the same face (including if there is only one die) and you are about to gain food for any reason you may first throw all 5 dice back into the bird feeder”

    Can anyone tell us who is right?

    If you choose to discard a feather card in order to get an extra food on the gain food section. Do you have to take the two food tokens at the SAME time or for example if there is two dice in the feeder can you take one and then re-roll the remaining dice (including the ones outside the bird feeder). Again relating back to this rule of if the bird tray is ever empty throw all 5 dice back in. If the dice in the tray all show the same face (including if there is only one die) and you are about to gain food for any reason you may first throw all 5 dice back into the bird feeder”

    Thanks in advance

    Ellie & Scott

    1. 1. Here’s how the FAQ puts it higher on this page:


      2. Each time you take a die from the feeder, you can assess the remaining dice to see if you can reroll. So you can take one, then reroll the rest if they’re all the same face.

  41. I love having multiple “move to another habitat” birds. I have had up to 3 of these birds in a row (sometimes the Mockingbird is the 3rd bird). I got massive amounts of resources, and each time. I planned ahead to what I would want to do next turn, and moved them all to that row so I could get a lot of whatever that row offered next turn. It becomes quite complex to make sure that you both maximize your resources, and also clear out a habitat just before you play a bird, so you don’t trap your mobile flock behind another bird! It makes for a very fun game. In a way, it is very like a mobile feeding winter flock that feeds together and helps each other find more food.

  42. If a player has multiple “move to another habitat” bird cards next to each other can they both move in a single turn? The second card (from right to left in order if play) isn’t the right most bird at the start of the turn but when it’s power is activated after the bird to the right of it has moved to another habitat there are no other birds to it’s right.

  43. Hi!

    Thank you for a great game. Played it twice a day with my wife for the last few days in quarantine.

    I have one question regarding ”cartographer” though: do you realise that Turkey is a geography term?

    Rickard, Sweden

    1. Hi Rickard! Thanks for the question. Here’s how Elizabeth Hargrave, the designer, put it when asked the same question: “Hmmm…turns out etymologically this is a fair question. But in North America a turkey has become its own thing, people aren’t referring to the history of European misconceptions about where it’s from. So I’m sticking with the ruling that it doesn’t count. (And turkey vultures are named after turkeys, not the country, so they don’t count either.)”

      It may slightly affect bonus card percentages, but you’re welcome to houserule anything you’d like if you disagree. :)

  44. When determining the value of birds in a row for end of round goals, is a sideway’s bird counted as one or two birds?

  45. Please help with the omnivore expert bonus card. In the Hungarian version it is not clear if this card gives extra points for the birds only with the all food symbol or they can have other symbols beside this as all food + fish?
    Thank you!

  46. The Bronze Cowbird, the Brown-Headed Cowbird, and the Yellow-Billed Cuckoo have the power of once in between turns, when a player performs the “lay eggs” action, he lays an egg on another bird with a specific nest type.
    The question is: do you get that egg from the bird or from the general supply? Thank you.

  47. At the end of round are the dice all rolled, similar to the bird cards being replaced? Or are the dice left as is and play resumes for the next round with some dice possibly out of the bird feeder?

    1. Nope, the only circumstances that all dice are rolled is as noted in the rulebook: When the birdfeeder is empty or (optionally) if a player is ready to gain food and all dice in the birdfeeder show the same face.

  48. We’ve assumed they are rolled outside the feeder and don’t affect the contents of the feeder. (In practice, we remove and set aside the feeder dice, use the feeder to roll the “out of the feeder” dice. We then put those dice back outside the feeder, and replace them with the original contents of the feeder.) A bit complicated, but it ensures that dice don’t go rolling all over the place and end up on the floor, knocking eggs off birds, etc. I suppose we could just get an alternate rolling box, but this works for us.

  49. When a bird’s activation calls for dice not in the feeder to be rolled, are they rolled outside the feeder? Or are they rolled in the feeder, and the food type mentioned in the activation is removed from the feeder if rolled?

    1. That type of bird power calls for you to roll the dice outside of the birdfeeder (don’t roll them into the feeder). Nothing is removed from the birdfeeder if the action is successful (these dice are outside the feeder after all).

  50. HI Jamey, I have a question regarding the birdpower, what does it mean “optional”? Is it optional to activate or optional to execute it? Example on American Bittern the power is to draw a card if you have the least bird in the wetland. So if the player has more than the other player than he can say that he doesn’t activate it?

    1. That’s correct. If it doesn’t benefit the player activating the bird, they don’t have to activate it. So it’s “optional.”

  51. Does the End-of-Round Goal: “Count the total number of birds you currently have in this specific habitat row” include birds that are tucked- i.e., flocking, hunting or fishing??

    1. I don’t think so, since some of them just represent prey and not living birds. As for floks, I think Wingspan is about gathering as many UNIQUE birds as possible, so they don’t count upwards to the number of birds in a row. However, you still get points for your tucked cards at a later point while scoring. They just don’t count twice.

  52. Hi Jamey, thank you for answering. Let me also say what a fantastic game Wingspan is. I really love the details and artwork. I have no real problem with the English rules. I just wanted my parents to test this as well so it would have been nice with localisation in Swedish or Norwegian.

    1. Thanks John! There is a company working on a Norwegian version. The tricky thing is that the rules alone aren’t enough, as the cards are very text heavy–it’s necessary to have the full game in that language.

  53. It says on the back of the english rule book that you can find the rules in dozens (I assume a lot more than 12) of other languages at but I cannot find them. Please point me in the right direction.

  54. Can you explain how to score the end of the round points for the Automa’s points? I do not understand the scoring cards for it & how to use it. There are birds for all 3 types, all four types, bird cards alone, and sets (-1)???

    Can you give an example? Round 1, Base value 1, egg in any? or what?
    or: Round 1, base value -1 sets of any???



    1. Hi Bryan,
      You set up the end of round goals normally. For each round, find the round-end goal on the Automa scoring card for that round. The number beside the image of the current goal is a base number that tells you the MINIMUM count of that item that Automa will ‘have’ at the end of the round. That number will change each time the Automa cards show a blue cube (or a blue cube with an X). At the end of the round, when it’s time to compare how you did at the goal, Automa will have the base number shown on the card plus 1 for each cube placed there.
      Using the example on pg. 4 of the Automa rulebook: In Round 2, all 7 goals (eggs in any of those 3 habitats and eggs in any of those 4 types of nests) start with a base of 3. This essentially means that you can expect Automa to have MINIMUM of 3 eggs for that goal (in this case straw nests). There are also two cubes on the tile so, assuming this is the end of round 2, Automa has 3+2 or 5 eggs on straw nests. Compare how many you have to see how many VP you and Automa get.
      I hope this clears it up for you. Please let me know if you still have questions.

  55. New Players here! We have been through the new Player Guide twice, watched two different videos and read all the directions many times. We understand the need to preserve food and start with a low card count (like 1 or 2) but keep getting stoped at Turn 2 or 3. What happens when all players run out of food and/or cards at this early stage?

    Other questions using the New Player Guide to illustrate the questions:
    Player 1 – Turn 1: Why don’t you collect food as shown on the picture of the die in the left most position in the Gain Food row? And why is the bird power not activated in this position?
    Turn 2: Why do you gain 2 eggs in the left most position as the picture indicates but don’t follow the picture indication in the Gain Food row above? And is it true that you gain 2 eggs without playing a card?
    Turn 3: Regarding paying the egg cost at the top of the column, does this cost need to be paid only for the Gain Food row or also in the Grassland and Wetland rows as well if a card is played in those rows?

    Player 2 – Turn 1: What does it mean to “use the wetland” and why is placing a card in the first left position not using the wetland and thus (not) activating the brown power. Are brown powers not activated in the first left position of a row?
    Why do you not draw a card in the first left position of the Wetland row despite there being a picture indicating that action?
    Turn 2: This New Player Guide doesn’t mention playing a card in the left first position of the Grassland row? Is this always the case in this row?
    Turn 4: This references “cards” plural in our hand. But this was a practice round where they had us start out with 2 cards. We drew 1 card and then put it under the Vaux Swift which means no cards. What happens when you have no cards and/or no food.

    Thank you. I have requested to join the FACEBOOK group but still need to be accepted. We have friends coming over to play and would love the answers to at least these questions.

    Thank you. Gabrielle

    1. Hi Gabrielle! The Facebook group will be great at answering your questions. Also, this video is amazing too:

      But I can also try to answer things here. Generally, to answer your questions, there are 4 main actions. Play a Bird, Activate your Forest row, activate your Grassland row, and activate your Wetland row. The last three as similar, just different rows, the first, Play A Bird, is very different. When you’re playing a bird, you only play that bird, you don’t activate the row it’s on.

      Player 1 –
      Turn 1: This is demonstrating the “Play a Bird” action, not the “Gain Food” action. The video above will help you with this. You place the cube in the “Play a Bird” spot, not the “Gain Food” row.
      Turn 2: Explained above. You weren’t gaining food, you were playing a new board somewhere on your player mat.
      Turn 3. The egg cost is paid whenever you play a bird beyond the first column, no matter the habitat.

      Player 2
      Turn 1: Playing a bird is different than activating a habitat row. You don’t activate any powers in the row when playing a bird.
      Turn 2: I’m not sure I understand the question, but hopefuly I’ve already answered it or the video has helped.
      Turn 4: In turn two you drew more cards. So you have cards in your hand. If you are out of cards in your hand or food in your supply, you can still do actions that don’t require cards or food.

      Hopefully that helped.

  56. @Jamey Stegmaier: “WHEN ACTIVATED: Tuck a card from
    your hand behind this bird. If you do,also lay 1 egg on this bird.”

    What if the activated Bird has no space for other eggs?

    I can tuck a card behind this bird anyway, not laying the egg;

    or i cannot tuck a card if the Bird has no space for other eggs?

    Many thanks!

  57. I recently purchased Wingspan and noticed that 6 of the 170 bird cards do not have one of the three bird powers (for example, the HOODED WARBLER). So if I played the HOODED WARBLER and on another turn gained food, and then moved my action cube to the HOODED WARBLER, I would skip over it, just like I would if it were a ONCE BETWEEN TURNS bird card or a WHEN PLAYED bird card. Is that correct?

      1. Thanks and a follow-up question: If a “WHEN PLAYED: Play a second bird..” has two different habitats listed (i.e. woods or field) could you play the when played bird in the woods and the second bird in the field?

  58. I have a rule question about round-end powers. If I use a round-end power to play a bird with a round-end power, does that second bird’s round-end power activate immediately?

  59. When a card tells me to roll all dice that are NOT in the birdfeeder, does the reroll rule still apply when all dice show the same?

    If so, one could simply wait to activate the card until there’s only 1 die out, and reroll until he gets the desired result

  60. For the Green Heron card (trading food) does the food token you give up go back to the supply or back to the feeder (i.e. change the face of one die in the feeder to represent the switch?


  61. Hi, we have a query about the activation of pink powers. I’ve searched through this thread and can’t find any that clarify our specific issue.
    I made a successful predation with my owl in the second slot of the woodlands. Another player has the the Turkey vulture. Does the pink power (turkey vulture) activate before I complete moving my cube along the woodlands? Or do I complete my brown powers before the pink activates. We ask because if the (turkey vulture) player removes a dice it can effect the remaining brown abilities if they involve available dice.

    1. Hi Chelsea! A Pink power is activated directly after the action that caused it. So if a successful predation action activates a pink power, then the player with the pink power must complete their pink action before the original player continues doing actions in their row. This strict order of operations usually doesn’t matter, but you’re right, it could be important in some cases.

      1. Thanks for the quick reply. We’ve played a few times now and it didn’t come up for several games. But it made a huge difference yesterday’s game!

      2. As a follow up: I don’t remember the card name, but it was a if you tuck a card, then draw one. Another player had the turn end power that she could draw and tuck a card whenever another player tucks.(itseems like the rules say she can do this automatically and not when it gets back to her turn) So question, it’s my turn and I tuck and then can draw a card. Do I draw my card first or does the other player with the turn power draw first before I complete my action?

        1. Your opponent’s pink power will activate after you finish doing all the actions on the card that caused that pink power to activate. Basically you finish tucking and drawing, then the pink power does its thing, then you continue the rest of your turn (if you had any birds left to activate).

  62. Automa end of round restocking:

    When Automa plays “draw card” action on its last turn of a round, does the face-up cards got to be restock twice (once for ending Automa’s last turn and once for ending a round – therefore, discarding 6 face-up cards)?

    1. Technically, yes. You’ll discard the tray, and then refill, and then discard again. But unless the cards that are discarded matter to you, there’s no difference. Feel free to follow the rules strictly, or just save yourself a step. It’s up to you. Whatever you do, do it consistently and I’d say it’s fair. :)

  63. First of all, let me say that I don’t consider Wingspan just a game, but a work of art – so beautiful! The game has been my obsession since the end of August when I finally found a copy in a remote game store on the very tip of Cape Cod! :-) I would like to make a suggestion…. When the expansions are released, it would be helpful if they would include updated replacements for the affected cards in the base game. (for example: a new Anatomist bonus card to include “back” and a new Cartographer to include “European”). It would help settle a few arguments on game days! :-)

  64. Any answer on the Eleanora’s Falcon and Mute Swan questions that you said you’d check with the designer on? Thanks!!

  65. And more than that (because it sounds like there may be an assumption), there is NEVER a bonus for placing a bird on a space (beyond what is printed on the bird card). The symbols on the spaces are what you get when you execute that action (gain food, lay eggs, draw birds). You receive the amount in the next unoccupied space to the right. Placing a bird on a space only incurs an egg and food cost, plus whatever is written on the cards. What is printed on the rectangle that you place the bird upon is irrelevant while you are playing the bird.

  66. Alright, so there are some cards like Montagu’s Harrier that say “Instead of paying any costs, you may play this bird on top of another bird on your player may. Discard any eggs and food from that bird. It becomes a tucked card.” It initially has a 2 rat cost and can only be played in grassland. I’m saying that since it says play on top of another bird on your player mat means that it can be on any bird in any habitat, but my girlfriend is arguing that it can only be on a bird in my grassland because that was the initial requirement, but I’m saying that since I’m not playing the bird as normal then the requirement goes away and I can play on top of any bird. What is the right interpretation? Thanks!

    1. Thanks for the question, Tyler! The Montagu’s Harrier power is a “When Played” power. That means to use its effect, it must follow all the normal rules of playing birds, include playing it in the appropriate habitat.

    1. Hi Jim! The only difference a new customer needs to know about is the newest version of Wingspan includes the Swift-Start Promo, which provides a scripted way for new players the learn the game. All other details in all other version of the game currently for sale are identical. Feel free to email me at if you have specific questions about the minutia of early printings.

      1. Think of them more as reprintings, rather than different editions. The initial printing had some card errors, which were fixed in (I think) the 2nd printing. The Swift Start is an excellent addition, as it used to take me about 30-45 minutes of explaining to get a new player going with all the complexities and goals. Swift Start bangs out half a round in 20 minutes, and you can then explain goals and strategy on top of that base understanding of the game mechanics.

  67. Hey guys, love the game. Was wondering what would happen in this scenario.

    Turn 1: play a bird on the lay eggs space

    I now can never gain eggs because I don’t have the required eggs to lay eggs. What would I do if this ever happens?

      1. Thanks for the update, Dale! Just in case others are reading, I’ll clarify his misconception of the rules. The egg cost at the top of the mat is only for playing new birds. You never have to pay that egg cost when taking actions in the forest, grassland, or wetlands habitats. :)

  68. First of all I love Wingspan! Beautifully produced Jamey, with much attention to detail.
    I have a question about the Blue Jay.
    When activated. If there is 1 die in the feeder (since I’m looking for food) can I reroll all dice to see if a grain comes?

  69. Hi. I just played the game for the first time. I love the game!

    I have two questions.

    1. When we tuck a bird behind another one, do the powers of the tucked birds get activated like the one on top?

    2. When counting up round bonuses or final bonuses, I know the tucked birds count for 1 VP each, but do the tucked birds count at all toward bonuses like nest types?

  70. Hi, just purchased this game the yesterday! I’m loving it! Did notice that my game was a blue turn token short… How can I acquire the missing component?

  71. Hi, question about the sets of eggs round objective. Does each set have to be in the same column vertically? Or do you just count the total number of eggs in each habitat and count the total number of sets regardless of where they are placed vertically?

    1. Hi Greg! The columns don’t matter. Another way of thinking about it: find the habitat with the fewest eggs and count the number of eggs there. That number equals your sets of eggs in all habitats.

  72. With the ecologist bonus card, can a player receive the bonus for multiple habitats (say the player has three birds in each habitat and all other players have 3+ birds in each habitat, thus netting 18 points)? Or is only one habitat able to be counted for fewest birds?

    1. Hi Scotty! The Ecologist bonus card is only looking at your own player mat. So you’ll be comparing your three habitats and scoring the one habitat (or multiple if tied) that has the fewest birds. I hope that answers your question. :)

      1. So if you have the ecologist card and only laid down three birds in each habitat, you receive 2 pts for every bird for a total of 18? That seems like it would win you the game every time!

        1. Oh sorry, I misspoke. You only count 1 habitat, even if you have ties for the fewest. Maximum 10 points if you happen to have all habitats filled with 5 birds each, which is very difficult to do.

  73. We are enjoying the game very much, thank you for the effort to produce a quality game on a worthwhile subject.
    One suggestion and one nitpick.
    Suggestion: We know there are too many species to cover entirely with the game, but we would love to see an expansion set of cards that cover some of the birds that were missed in the first version. We love our Brown Thrashers, Snowy Owls, Hairy Woodpeckers and Purple Finches (to name a few). I’m sure you’ve heard this a bit already, so take it as intended.
    Nitpick: The materials are top notch (thank you) but we were a bit disappointed with the amount of plastic packaging and materials in the game. We personally see no reason for the plastic trays and there are far more plastic bags than is necessary. If part of the idea is to promote awareness of avian wildlife, it might be nice if some of the production and materials reflected care for the habitat as well.
    Thank you again for listening and for an excellent game.

    1. Thanks Rob! Expansions will cover new continents, but there are far too many birds in the world to cover every bird on every continent, especially those that we’ve already covered.

      How many plastic bags are unused in your copy of Wingspan? We consider the environment in every decision we make. My primary concern are plastic components that are disposed of, not those that remain in the game–if you keep the plastic tray (which serves several important purposes in the game) in your game, then it’s not going to clog up the ocean. We’re working on eliminating shrinkwrap too.

      1. thank you for the reply. We do use the large plastic tray. We do not use the smaller clear plastic trays. We also find that we have six or seven additional plastic bags (maybe more) we do not use or need. We’ll find uses for them rather than throw them – but still…. We put all of the food tokens into one. All of the eggs into another. Even the move counters don’t need separate bags – we don’t find separating 8 counters of the same color out to be too difficult. I think additional bags came with the starter pack that was included with this version. I know it is a cost thing, but I’d sooner see cloth bags for the eggs and food tokens, since there are several of these.

        thank you for allowing the chance to give feedback.

        As for more bird cards. We get that. But, just think… Snowy Owls! ;)

        1. Snowy Owls are already in the game. Just get the European Expansion. The Snowy is in fact the featured cover bird on the European Expansion box. The European Expansion also adds some interesting new wrinkles, such as end-of-round powers, some new end of round goals, and some innovative brown powers. You can find a description of all of these in the online copy of the rulebook for the expansion.

    1. Hi Tig! I’m not sure I exactly understand your question, but I’ll try to help. The Common Nighthawk is one of the birds that will move habitats if it’s to the right of all other birds in that habitat. So when you activate the habitat it is in, and then activate this bird, you may move it to a different habitat, and then continue activating the originally chosen habitat. If you have more questions, myself and many others can help you at the Wingspan Facebook group:

  74. I do not understand this rule: ONCE Between TURNS: When another player’s [pirat symbol] succeeds, gain 1 food from the birdfeeder.
    What is meant with “succeeds”?

    1. That is the predation symbol. Succeeds means that the conditions for gaining a benefit are met. The most usual conditions are: 1) Rolling some dice and seeing whether a particular prey item (mouse, fish, etc.) pops up, 2) Drawing a card to see whether the wingspan is below X, 3) The more unusual new European expansion powers of deploying a bird using birds from your hand that get tucked as prey.

  75. Hi. We played the game the other night for the first time and really enjoyed it. We did have one question. My son had 2 birds in the forest habitat, so the next gain food action would give him 2 foods (col 3). One of his forest birds had the hunting power to “roll all dice not in the birdfeeder” (sorry I don’t recall which bird). There were 2 different dice in the feeder when he played a gain food action. It seemed his options were
    1) take the 2 foods in the feeder and restock it leaving no dice for the hunting power
    2) take 1 food, then restock the feeder before taking the 2nd food, leaving 1 die for the hunting power
    3) take only 1 food and leave 4 dice for the hunting power (his preference)

    In general, is a player allowed to take fewer items than shown?

      1. In that same case, is the next fourth option posible?:
        4) take the 2 foods in the feeder and restock it after activating the hunting power.


  76. If I have more than one pink power card on my board, can I take that action (when activated) for each one of the cards?

  77. Hi! I would like to ask for some information about the translation. I would be interested about the Hungarian translation especially. The Latin names are completely correct to my knowledge BUT the hungarian translation is very mixed up and not correct at all. If I’m correct the publisher in Hungary is Delta Vision Publishing. Is it possible somehow to contact the translator or the publisher? Because I know a lot of ornitologist in person and could offer a huge help to correct it out. Thanks for your feedback!

  78. I got Wingspan for my girlfriend for Christmas and she along with her family love it. It’s also become my favorite game as I love the all the analytical/probabilistic thinking involved. But we have one rule that we’ve been arguing about that we were hoping to get clarification on:

    With the pink cards that say, “Once Between Turns”, can those cards’ powers only be used a maximum of one time during the entire four round game?


    1. Alex: For those types of powers, they can be used many times over the course of the game, but only once between your turns (turns are different than rounds). For example, say you’re playing a 3-player game. The player to your left takes her turn and triggers your “once between turns” ability. You gain that benefit. Then the next player also triggers the ability. But because the ability only works once between turns, nothing happens then. It’s then your turn, and the ability resets and can be activated by another player.

      1. Thanks for the clarification. So for a bird that had the pink power which says, “Once Between Turns when someone plays a bird in the forest habitat, gain an invertebrate from the supply”, whomever played that card early in the game could get invertebrates from the supply a lot of times since up to 5 birds per player could be played in that habitat as long as they weren’t trying to do it when it was their turn? It seems like it would make those cards very valuable.

  79. Loved the game.
    Quick rule question that just came up in our last game. When playing a bird, you can convert any 2x foods to 1x food. Can you instead convert 4x food to 2x food on the same turn? E.g., you have 4 grubs but actually need 2 berries.
    Related, can you convert to foods that you don’t need for the bird you’re currently playing, but for another bird you plan to play later?

      1. You guys are awesome. I’ve never seen a game with such an responsive team behind it. Here’s the follow-up then. Does the same stand for the other conversion opportunities (i.e.: card-for-food, food-for-egg, egg-for card)? Can those be done as many times as wanted?

  80. Three European Expansion Questions:
    1) Greylag Goose (and 2 others) have a blue power: ROUND END: This bird counts double toward the end-of-round goal, if it qualifies for the goal.
    So, the question is, if the goal is “Bird cards in Hand” does the bird count as 2 birds in your hand?

    2) Eleonora’s Falcon: Brown power WHEN ACTIVATED: Roll all dice not in birdfeeder. If any are Mice, lay 1 Egg on this card.
    Is this a predation power? It seems like one, as this is a Falcon, and the mouse would be a prey item, allowing the falcon to have a bigger brood. However, there is no predation symbol on the card, so we’re not sure whether this counts towards “Birds with a predation power” or “When a predation succeeds.” Was this just an omission?

    3) Mute Swan has a tucking power (WHEN ACTIVATED: Choose 1-3 birds in your Wetland.
    Tuck 1 Bird Card from your hand behind each. If you do, draw 1 Bird Card.) But it has no flocking symbol. So, is it a flocking power? It is listed in the rules under “Flocking Powers”. It is a very similar power to the Common Chaffinch’s power, which does have a flocking symbol. Was the lack of a flocking symbol on Mute Swan an omission?

    1. Thanks for your questions. I’ll answer below.

      1. No, you can only use the abilities of birds you’ve played, not birds in hand.
      2 and 3. I think you make good points here. I’ll check with the designer, but for now, I would recommend playing them as printed.

  81. So, to me, Eleonora’s Falcon’s power seems like a predation power:
    WHEN ACTIVATED: Roll all dice not in birdfeeder. If any are mice, lay 1 on this card.
    However, the falcon does not have the predation symbol on its brown power. Is this an oversight, or was this intended?

  82. Does the Greylag Goose (Blue Power: This bird counts double toward the end-of-round goal, if it qualifies for the goal) count as 2 birds in your hand if the end-of-round goal is Bird Cards in Hand?

  83. I am playing with my 8 year old son. When we’ve played, here’s the situation we can’t figure out:

    He starts with two bird cards and 3 foods.
    He plays one bird card by paying a food cost of 3 and it is not a forest bird.
    So he is immediately stuck and can’t get more food to play the next bird.
    None of my birds say “everyone collects food” so I can’t help him on my turn.

    What are we doing wrong??

    1. Heather, one can take the “gain food from birdfeeder action” even if there are no birds in the forest habitat. (Similarly for “lay eggs” or “draw bird cards”.)

  84. Hi, we just recently discovered this game and we love it, but we ran into a problem when playing. My mother played the Loggerhead Shrike which has the ability “Once between turns, is another player takes the “gain food” action, if they gain any rodents, you can get one rodent from the supply and cache it in this card.” I had in play the Eastern Screech Owl in my “Gain Food” row, and when I took the Gain Food action, I decided to activate its power, which was to roll all dice not in the bird feeder and if any are rodents, I can gain one rodent and cache it in the card. I rolled a rodent on the dice and cached one onto my card, but then my mother interpreted it as I “gained a rodent” and cached a rodent on her shrike. I, and my brother and sister in law who were also playing, all thought that was the wrong interpretation of the card, that since I had cached the rodent and would not be able to use it in the game, it did not count toward my mother being able to cache her rodent. The food I gained from the Gain Food action was a wheat (grain) rather than a rodent, after all. I was hoping you could clarify this for us. In this situation, would the Shrike ability activated not?

    1. Corinne: Thanks for your question. This ability is referring specifically to the core benefit of the “gain food” action, not “when activated” bird abilities. So no, the Shrike ability would not activate.

  85. New to game. After two hours reading rules, watching videos… still unclear if you use only one action cube per each player turn, or the same cube is repeatedly returned to left side and used in next turn.

  86. The Viticulturalist card gives bonus points for birds that eat cherries. Do birds that eat ‘wild’ (rainbow) food count?

  87. My Husband and I are debating the interpretation of the Egg-Laying Power on the European Expansion (Teal Round End) card…. ex: Dunnock

    “Choose 1 other player. For each action cube on their (X habitat), lay 1 egg on this bird”

    We are debating what the/an/a “Action Cube” is? Is it the colored block you use each time you have a turn…and then return to the habitat at the Left most after you have completed your play? Or something else?

    Please Advise?

    Thank you in advance…and Bravo on SUCH a beautiful game!

  88. When counting points after a round do you count the tucked cards also?

    Example: it’s the end of round 1 and you need to count all your birds in the forest (or all ground nest cards with an egg on top, etc). Do you then count only the TOP cards or tucked ones also (up to max 5 points)?

    Same question for counting the bird points (feathers) at the end of the game. When counting tucked cards as (feather) points, numbers add up real fast so I don’t think so but can’t find the answer.

      1. So you have now said both that you play a kite over a horizontal bird, and (earlier) that you can’t play over a roller. Are those contradictions?
        Please clarify. Thanks!!

          1. If you play the Red Kite over a Grey Heron, can you count the Grey Heron’s 3 feathers when scoring, and can you place two eggs on the Grey Heron?

          2. When you play a bird over the Grey Heron, the new bird will also go sideways, completely covering up the Grey Heron, which becomes a tucked bird.

      1. If a player chooses the Draw Bird Cards action and is drawing 2 (or more) cards, can he draw both cards from the deck one at a time (thus allowing him to see the next card in the deck before deciding on his second card), or does he decide on his 2 cards before drawing (thus forcing him to draw no more than 1 from the deck)?

  89. Happy Thanksgiving, Jamey.

    A question came up during our most recent game of Wingspan (original version – no expansion yet). One of the players played a CHIHUAHUAN RAVEN in the Grasslands (When Activated: Discard 1 [egg symbol] from any of your other birds to gain 2 [wild food icon] from the supply.) . The next turn she played a NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD as the second bird in her Grasslands (When Activated: Repeat a brown power on one other bird in this habitat.). A few turns later she placed an action cube to get three eggs, which she placed on her various birds. Next she moved her action cube to the NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD and activated its brown power. We agreed that the brown power for the CHIHUAHUAN RAVEN requires the player to discard an egg from one of their other birds (i.e., not the CHIHUAHUAN RAVEN ), but wondered which bird could /couldn’t discard an egg when the NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD copied the CHIHUAHUAN RAVEN’s brown power. The three choices were 1) an egg from the CHIHUAHUAN RAVEN, 2) an egg from the NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD, or 3) an egg from some other bird (this is what she did to avoid controversy).

    The basic question is: When a bird’s brown power lets it “repeat” another bird’s brown power, should you play the “repeat” brown power as if you had two of the same bird? In this case the player would “pretend” that the NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD was a second CHIHUAHUAN RAVEN for this turn, to determine which egg to discard. Thank you for any guidance you can provide.


    1. The repeating bird repeats the power as if it’s printed on the repeating bird.

      EDIT: To be clearer, the bird allows another bird to repeat their action (whether they’ve taken that action yet or not). The repeat bird does not take on the power of the other bird.

      1. This came last night, regarding the raven power (When Activated: Discard 1 [egg symbol] from any of your other birds to gain 2 [wild food icon] from the supply.)
        What is the real meaning of “Discard 1 egg from any of your other birds”?. the way it is written enables 2 interpretations:
        If you have 3 additional birds with at least 1 egg on them.
        1) You can only pay 1 egg in your turn and needs to be from another bird. Pay 1 egg and get 2 food tokens.
        2) You can decide to pay 1 egg from each of the other 3 birds. Pay 1-3 eggs to get 2-6 food tokens.


        1. It should be 1 egg only. The Appendix says: “Discard the egg to the supply.” As it is, 1 egg for 2 foods already tips the game heavily towards the Raven owner. If you could do any number of eggs, each for 2 foods, the Raven would pretty much guarantee a win for the owner.

      2. So, if a Mockingbird repeats a tucking power (such as the Barn Swallow which says tuck a card, then draw one), the card gets tucked under the Mockingbird, right? This means that it then counts as a “Bird with Tucked Cards” for that European Expansion end of round goal. But it presumably does not count as a bird with a Flocking Power for Bonus cards. Is all of this correct?

        1. Thanks for the question. The Mockingbird allows you to repeat a bird’s power (in the same habitat). So technically the bird you’re repeating will potentially get two actions (in this instance, two chances to tuck under itself). The Mockingbird does not take on the powers of the other bird and so in this instance would not gain a tucked card. In the European Expansion there are some cards that allow you to tuck cards on other birds, and to answer the second part of your question, that does not give the “flocking power” to that bird, but would count for the “Citizen Scientist” bonus card in the European Expansion which only looks for “birds with tucked cards.”

          1. Oh that is sad. I thought it was a genius move that I played a bird that could be moved to another habitat, then a repeat bird to the right of it. Later, I activated the repeat bird and moved it to a new habitat, thus also freeing the migrating bird to move. But apparently that was not a legal move. Even though in real life, the mockingbird does not talk another bird into singing their song twice, but instead sings their song also, as if they are that other bird. Well, good to know. Thanks!

  90. I apologize if this is a repeat question. If the brown power says “when activated” do you have to activate it whenever you take that action? I’ll give 2 examples. Do you always have to move the birds with the move to another habitat power or can you choose to leave it in that habitat. Second example is a brown power that says all players lay eggs on a cup nest, can I choose not to activate it? So I don’t lay my 2 eggs (maybe my birds are full) but also other players can’t either.

    1. Okay I see that you already said you don’t have to activate. But I’d love if you’d clarify whether that means in an “all players” scenario that the other players can’t take advantage of the brown power too.

          1. Great! Thanks for the quick reply. I could see “golden” is, since it comes from the noun gold. Snowy is on the photographer card, but Snow (the noun) isn’t. Oddly enough, my opponent had all those three cards! He’ll be happy to know he won :)

          2. As an amateur ornithologist, I think that for this particular bird, “Snow” means the habitat where it lives. Unlike in Snowy owl, where I think it means it is white colored as in an “owl covered by snow”.

  91. In the expansion, there are two new abilities that interact oddly. If I play the European roller sideways in the plains habitat and later want to play the common buzzard in the plaims, do I cover half of the bird to fill a plains slot or do place the buzzard sideways to cover the roller and take up both slots?

  92. For the “once between turns” actions, if you were first player, do you have to wait for everyone else to play a second time and only get to activate this ability once as you have not gone yet? Or should you be able to activate it again on the second go around when your turn is “skipped” due to the first player marker moving clockwise?

    Or in other words,

    Player 1 goes
    Players 2-5 go, “once between turns” ability is triggered
    Round changes, player 2 now goes first
    Players 2-5 go again before player 1 gets another turn
    Does player 1’s ability trigger again during this new round? Or not, because player 1 hasn’t gone yet?

    1. The end of the round causes all “once between turns” abilities to end until the next round begins (they reset).

      Correction: The end of the round does not reset pink powers. Only your turn resets your own pink powers.

      1. Thank you! That’s even better, as if I’m understanding correctly everyone’s abilities can be triggered again once a new round starts!

      2. We’ve generally played that as soon as the trigger occurs, the player whose pink power is activated gets to take their action. We let that player take the action as soon as the turn is finished, but before any rounds can end. It says “once between turns.” It doesn’t say “Wait until your turn comes, and if the trigger happened then act during your own turn.” We assume the action can be performed in between that pink power owner’s turns, and the most convenient time to do that is right after the triggering player has finished their turn.

        Example: 1) Predation action happens for player 3, triggering a food reception from the feeder for player 1. 2) Player 1 can choose a food from the feeder. 3) Player 3 takes their turn (or if it was the end of the round, do end of round stuff and then the next “First Player” takes their turn).

  93. Thank you for answering my former question.
    I have some questions about the rule again.

    When I activate the power “Each player gains 1 food from the birdfeeder, starting with the player of your choice.”, can I choose myself for the starting player?

    If, during I activate Loggerhead Shrike’s power, someone gains food from the birdfeeder by activating another bird’s power, can I get a mouse from the supply?
    Or Loggerhead Shrike’s power means, only when someone gain food by normal food-gaining action in forest area, I can get a mouse?

  94. I bought a Japanese version of this game.
    I played it 2 times (first time with Automa, second time with my friends), and I truly love this game!
    Thank you for all people spent a lot of time and made a tremendous effort for this joyful, beautiful and wonderful game!

    Now, I hove two question about the rule.

    1. IF during someone activate the power “ONCE Between TURNS: When another player plays a bird [in a specific habitat], gain 2 [specific food] from the supply.” in habitat-A, another one play a bird with the power “Play a second bird in your [specific habitat]” in habitat-A and play a second bird, the first one gains 4 [specific food] or 2? (By the way, in Japanese version, the power is changed to “gain 1 [specific food]”.)

    2. When I get food tokens / eggs / bird cards from the 2nd, 4th and 6th column of the board, can I pay 2 or more bird cards / food tokens / eggs and gain 2 or more additional item?

    I’m sorry if my English sentences are incorrect.

    1. Thank you for your questions! I’m glad you’re enjoying Wingspan. For those questions: 1. “Once between turns” means only once. If a player plays two birds in one turn, only the first bird triggers your pink power. And 2. You can only pay to get food/eggs/cards a single time.

      I hope that answers your questions! If you’re on facebook, look for the Wingspan group there. It’s a great place to get rules questions answered quickly.

      -Joe at Stonemaier

  95. Hello Jamey !

    I am French and have a question about a basic rule in the game : the “when activated birds”.
    Am I obligated to activate the power of “when activated bird” or do I have the choice to not activate it ?

    The French translation is unclear for this rule point.

    I really love your game and I can’t wait for the European expansion by the way ! :O

  96. Hello Jamey,

    in our most recent game of Wingspan, we had a disagreement on the “Pink Power” of the Yellow-Billed Cuckoo (ONCE BETWEEN TURNS: When another player takes the “lay eggs” action, this bird lays 1 [egg symbol] on another bird with a BOWL nest). I did not have any BOWL nest birds in play when my opponent took the LAY EGGS Option, but I did have two birds in play with STAR nests. I feel that an egg could be placed by my Yellow-Billed Cuckoo on one of my STAR nest birds. We reviewed the rules on Page 8 (Types of Nests) in the rule book and Page 8 (Egg-Laying Powers) in the Appendix, but still disagreed.

    Basically, the two questions that we need answered are:

    1) Specifically, can the Yellow-Billed Cuckoo (or American Avocet, Barrow’s Goldeneye, Bronzed Cowbird or Brown-Headed Cowbird) lay an egg on one of a player’s STAR nest birds when another player takes the LAY EGGS Option?

    2) In general, is there any situation (e.g., Bonus Cards, Brown Powers, Pink Powers, End-of-Round Goals) )when a STAR nest bird cannot be “used” instead of one of the “specific” four nest types (i.e., PLATFORM, BOWL, CAVITY or GROUND)?

    We’d appreciate your help.

  97. Hello- just starting out – getting game play down before having family & friends join me-
    please, If a bird -when activated (and on the right) can move to another habitat- does the moved bird gain anything from the new position -as food, eggs, cards? Or is it just a shift in position? Thank you.

      1. Wow. Thanks for the super fast response! I think that I was hoping to use it to garner more supplies…is the moved bird still restricted to its designated habitats or can it go to any. (maybe all these are all ready indicated on all the cards that have this, but I haven’t looked through all.) I guess I haven’t played enough to see/understand any advantage to shifting position – except maybe to open spot for another more advantageous birdcard.
        Thank you. Gloria

  98. When you take an action (eg gain food or lay eggs), and there are already birds placed in that habitat, how many foods, eggs, cards do you get? (a) the number in the original left most column; (b) the number under the last bird placed; or (c) the number showing in the rightmost place.
    Thank you!

    1. Abby: The number showing in the space to the right of the last bird in that habitat. So, if you have 2 birds in the habitat, the benefits you gain at the beginning of that action are in the middle column (the 3rd slot).

  99. I feel like this is a very stupid question (took three games for us to get most of the rules, we think): is it true that in a game you deal only ONCE on the first round? So cards are dealt once and then four rounds till the game ends with no new cards?

  100. If the last player in a round (e.g., Round 2) plays the Draw Bird Cards option and selects one (or more) of the three face up cards, do you replace the chosen card(s) from the deck before the remaining face-up cards are removed (and replaced) for the start of the next round?

      1. One advantage (?) of displaying the replacement card(s) before immediately discarding it / them at the end of the round is knowing which bird(s) will no longer be available to help achieve bonus card goals or end-of-round goals.

  101. When activating the Blue Jay’s effect – the way it is written seems like I gain a grain of available from the bird feeder – but then have the option to cache is or keep it as a food token. Is this correct? Or am I required to cache it?
    It says “you may cache it on this card”. So it seems like I have a choice to keep it and not cache it?

  102. If the first bird I play in a habitat is a bird with the power, “if this bird is to the right of all other birds in its habitat, move to another habitat,” (so technically there are no other birds to be oriented to the right of) can I still move it? Or does it need to be at least second in a habitat so there is another bird that it is to the right of?

      1. When you move the bird, do you get the bonus it lands on? For example if I move from the forest to the water, do I get a bird card?

  103. Question about sets of eggs in habitats for end of round goals. Is it just a count of eggs in each habitat, regardless of how many cards are involved?
    Example: Forest: 2 cards (2 eggs, 1 egg), Grassland 2 cards (2 eggs, 1egg), Wetland: 1 card (3 eggs).
    So, is this:
    3 sets (because there are 3 eggs per row)
    2 sets (because you’ve 2 sets in the first column, and none in the 3rd column)
    1 set (because you only count each bird once it has an egg on it).

    I’m interpreting it the first way, and a friend thinks it should be the 2nd way.

      1. Please clarify: In the example provided by Caracara, is the number of sets eggs equal to “2” since the first column bird card in the Forest and in the Grassland has exactly 2 eggs (even though the Wetland bird card has 3 eggs)? In addition, there is not a Wetland bird in the second column (therefore no Wetland eggs in Column 2). Thank you.

      2. So, I’m unclear now. In my example above, there are 3 eggs in each habitat (row). I thought the columns don’t matter, so please explain why it is only 2 sets.

  104. Hello!

    With the green end-of-round goals, how does it work with a 3 players tie?

    Let’s take an example:
    We are at the end of round 4 and three players have 5 birds in forests. Do they get (7+4+3)/3=4 or (7+4)/3=3 ?

    Thanks a lot!

  105. When taking the “draw bird cards” action, players may have the option to discard an egg for an additional bird card. Does a player need to decide at the beginning of his/her turn whether he/she wants to exercise that option (before having drawn any bird cards) or may he/she look at the drawn bird card(s) and then decide whether to exercise the option?

    (Similarly, when taking the “gain food from bird feeder action” and deciding whether to exercise the option of discarding a bird card for an additional food die.)

    1. A player may look at the cards they’ve drawn (you can select from the face-up cards or the top of the deck) and then decide whether or not to exercise the option. Same with gaining food.

  106. Two questions from our maiden game yesterday: 1) once you choose to activate a bird’s powers, is it a one-time thing? Or if you place another bird to the right on a subsequent turn, can you use the same activation powers again? 2) once you have 15 birds on your board during the 4-part round, what happens if you have other bird cards along with the food and egg costs, but nowhere to put them? Thanks.

    1. 1. Every time you activate a habitat, you have the choice of activating each “when activated” ability from right to left.

      2. If you’re able to fill up your board with birds (which can happen, though it’s very rare–if it’s happening to you a lot, it’s possible you may be playing a rule incorrectly), you cannot play more birds.

        1. I’m referring to the 3 actions that are not “play a bird”. For example, if you use your turn to gain food, you gain some food from the birdfeeder and then activate “when activated” birds from right to left in the forest habitat.

  107. When you have the yellow breasted chat and you move it to another habitat, do you continue playing your action piece to the left in the new habitat or the old one? (E.g. I play draw a card, get to the chat, and move it to the forest. Do I continue to move to the left in the forest or the wetland?

  108. WHEN ACTIVATED: Each player gains
    1 food from the birdfeeder, starting
    with the player of your choice.

    I take that as the player playing the card can choose to go first but the others playing say he would have to choose another player.
    Please clarify.

  109. Hi Jamey, can the same star nest bird(s) count toward two end game bonus cards? For example, could I score both the Nest Box Builder and the Platform Builder bonuses if I had three star nests, one platform nest and one cavity nest in play? Thanks!

      1. Does it one star next card could contribute to one end of round goal on round 1 the count towards the number of next needed for the round 2 after?

  110. Thank you for the quick response. We look forward to the expansions, especially for South American and African bird species.

  111. We love Wingspan ! ! ! Please clarify: The Canada Goose says “When Activated: Discard 1 Grain to tuck 2 bird cards from the deck behind this bird.”. If I do not have a Grain token may I pay two other food tokens as a substitute for the 1 Grain token?

  112. Hi Jamey, we just bought Wingspan and are playing through our first game. But we left the game out overnight and our dog *literally* ate the instruction book! We just downloaded it, but we’re sad because the original book was so beautiful! Is there any way for us to purchase an extra rulebook from y’all?

  113. When resolving the fishery Manager bonus is it *only* the cards that have the fish symbol that count or do the cards bearing the ‘any food type’ symbol count towards the bonus too?

  114. Beginner here – when you pay an egg to play a bird, where does the egg come from? The board, from eggs you’ve played? Or the egg stock?

      1. Right. I was hoping for “concise,” rather than sorting through 12 pages of posts. ;-)
        I believe I have the third printing, which corrects many errors, but still omits “Prairie” on the Cartographer Bonus Card, and has 10% vs. 16% on the Omnivore Expert Bonus Card. It’s difficult to know if there’s something else I should be adjusting.
        Thanks for the lovely game.

  115. When playing a bird whose card immediately places an egg in every bowl nest on your player mat, do star nests also get eggs placed in them?

      1. if a bonus card says birds that eat grain – does a bird that eats worm + anything (the multi color circle) count?

  116. Does the insert fit sleeved cards? Does it have room for expansions?

    The answer is NO!
    The stack of cards will be too thick and therefore will never fit all in. Please update FAQ answer.

      1. Hi Jamey, i have several friends with the same problem. It’s okay, I mean there are alot of cards. But the stack increased 50% in size, with only space for approx 20%.

        Dunno where you’ve found those pictures. But I thought it would be nice to give some real advice.

        Anyway, thanks for the FAQ

          1. Sure, just keep the bonus and Automa cards separate and spread the bird cards over the 3 slots.

            Either way, I’ve adjusted the FAQ to note that sleeved cards may fit differently based on the type of sleeves.

  117. Question about one of the Once Between Turns card: If the card states “When another player’s (predator) succeeds, gain …” what does succeed mean? Thanks

    1. It means for example if someone else activates the hunter power that says “Look at a bird from the deck. If wingspan <75cm, tuck behind this bird" and it is in fact <75cm then you can activate that pink power. Similarly for the other hunter (like if they roll a rat/fish to cache one on their card, that means they succeeded and you can activate the power). Keep in mind that you can only activate the pink power between turns. So if multiple people's hunters succeed between your previous turn and the next, you can only activate it once.

  118. I have a question about one of the Once Between turns card. I states “When another player’s (predator) succeeds, gain … What does ‘succeed mean?

    1. That’s referring to a predatory’s ability triggering for a positive result. Like, if a bird goes hunting for another bird and it fails (maybe the wingspan of the revealed bird is too big), that’s a failure.

  119. When the rulebook says that all powers are optional, what exactly does that mean for powers that affect other players? Take the osprey, for instance – its power is that, when activated, all players gain a fish from the supply. But the power is optional! Does that mean:
    a) the player who controls the osprey can – if they wish – choose not to activate the osprey, resulting in nobody getting any fish
    b) the osprey is always activated, but every player can choose whether or not they want to take a fish (obviously they will all choose to take one)


  120. Hi Jamie

    I absolutely love the game. I live in Spain with my girlfriend and we love playing wingspan. The problem is that not many people in the family talk English (we have an English copy). Having the rules and powers reference in Spanish would help immensely. As I’ve seen Spanish versions on the shelf here, I was wondering when you will have the Spanish PDF’s up?

  121. Hello Jamey,

    Would activating Anna’s Hummingbird and picking a mouse also trigger the bonus of the Loggerhead Shrike?

    We had a discussion about that in the last game.
    Player A played Anna’s Hummingbird in the woods.

    Player B had the Loggerhead Shrike.

    When Player A uses the “Gain Food” option and take a mouse Player B will get a mouse as well, no doubt.

    When Player A uses the “Gain Food” option and is taking a fish. Player B doesn’t get anything that’s clear as well.
    No due to the fact that Anna’s Hummingbird is in the woods it will be activated and each player will get another food token.
    If Player A takes a mouse now, will Player B get a mouse as well?
    or in other words is the activation considered to be still a “Gain Food” action?


      1. So, activating a move bird to another habitat ability is not the Play Bird action, so you don’t have to pay the egg cost for moving to a new column?

  122. I noticed on BGG that people are mentioning they are receiving their replacement cards. Have they been shipped in Canada? Will they automatically come for those who ordered initially and/or champions?

  123. Hi Jamey, how does the game end scoring for birds work? Do you only count the points for birds placed on the mat or also points for birds which are still in your hand? I can’t find any hint on this in the rulebook. Overall I like the game idea very much, but the unprecise rulebook and a lot of typos and minor errors on both the cards and in the rulebook leave me with mixed feelings (I own the German translation by Feuerland?! If you need support with proofreading of the German translation, let me know).

      1. Hi, we are also confused about this, so only cards that have been placed in the aviary can be counted in the end, none of the cards in hand? It doesn’t state this in the rule book nor in the instructional videos.

        1. The rule book states all the different ways to earn end of game points on page 5.

          It includes this item:
          “Points [are earned] for each face-up bird card on your player mat”
          It does not say that points are earned for birds on hand. Thus, birds on hand do not earn points.

          1. You’re welcome! :)
            Curious what version of the rule book you have. Did you buy a Chinese copy ;)
            Anyway, the rules are available for download here (link from top of this page):
            As I said, end of game scoring is explained von page 5.

            Also, I watched the instructional video linked to at the top of this page and at 14:10, end of game scoring is explained. The narrator clealy says “add the points of the birds in your aviary.”

            Happy playing!

        2. Sorry for any confusion, Emielke. When the rules tell you to add the “Points for each bird card (printed on the cards),” this means only for the birds played on your player mat. Do not count the points printed on the card for any birds in hand or tucked birds. :)

  124. Hi Jamey: Quick question, has “Wingspan” been translated in Traditional Chinese? Or is it just in English currently? Thanks!

      1. Thanks Jamey! Having the name of publisher helps. My sister found one and was wondering if it’s a counterfeit due to price different (~$70 USD) compared to ones we saw on Amazon ($104 USD). But after reading the press release here, I now understand the discrepancy :-P

  125. Hi. Just a question about a card that says ‘when activated’ you take a certain piece of food from the feeder (when available) and you MAY keep it on the card. Now keeping it on the card will score you one point at the end. So the text suggests an the other option keeping the food in order to buy future birds or is the text just misleading and there is no option. We are playing a dutch version of the game so it could be a translation problem.

    Kind regards Patrick.

    1. If it says that you “may” place the food on the card, you have the option of either keeping the food in your supply (to later spend) or to cache it on the bird card (for 1 VP at the end of the game).

  126. 30 Automa games and I’ve encountered something new.
    The American Oystercatcher says ‘When played: draw cards equal to the number of players +1. Take 1, pass them on, each player selects one and passes them on. You keep the extra one.
    When playing against the Automa I have a few options.
    1. Draw 3, Choose one, give Automa A bird that fits his criteria (or face down if it doesn’t fit) from the remaining two and keep the last one. (This what I did)
    2. Draw 3, Choose two myself and give Automa the last card face up or facedown dependant on fitting his criteria.
    3. Draw 3, Choose two and give the Automa nothing.

    1. Thanks John! I’ve forwarded this to David, but just to let you know, by far the best places to post questions about Wingspan are on BGG or the Wingspan Facebook group. You’re welcome to post here, but I just wanted to let you know that your great questions will help more people if they’re posted in one of those other locations. :)

  127. Regarding the birds that have the “when played you may play a second bird from your hand, pay its costs as normal” ability, when it says a second bird is that an implied limit on the number of birds i am able to chain with these cards? For example if I have 3 birds in hand and 2 of them have the above-mentioned ability, as long as I can pay the costs involved with playing them, am I able to play out my hand that turn?

  128. Can you clarify I’ve got this right please?
    I had one ‘move to another habitat’ bird and one ‘repeat a brown power’ bird in the same habitat.
    In a turn, If the ‘move’ bird has already moved then presumably the ‘repeat’ bird can’t repeat because the other bird is no longer in that habitat, but if the ‘repeat’ bird is the first to use its action it can move to another habitat.

      1. Hey Jaime!

        My question is in regards to resolve order on the Northern Mockingbird. Does the power “repeat” or “trigger” any brown power in the habitat? If The Mockingbird is the right most bird in the habitat, can it “repeat” a birds power to the left, even though it hasn’t happened yet? Thanks and LOVE all your games!!

        1. It copies another power in that habitat (on a bird to the left or right of it).

          EDIT: This has been revised. The Mockingbird and other birds like it, cause another bird to activate in the same row. It does not “copy” the power itself.

          1. May I suggest that you use the word “copy” instead of “repeat”? How can you repeat of re-activate something that hasn’t happened yet? I was very surprised when I understood how you intended this rule.

          2. OK, I see that, but how about just saying “activate”? Then it should be clear that it is the other bird that is being activated, and it should be clear that you can activate a bird to the left that has not already been activated. Of if you stick with “repeat”, then add a comment about it in the appendix.

  129. We’ve just had a game where someone used the cartographer bonus card. At the end they had the Greater Prairie Chicken but it isn’t in the list for cartographer. Is there a reason Sandhill, Savannah and Mountain count as geographical terms and Prairie doesn’t or is this an oversight?

      1. Hi Jamey, we had this same cartographer end game scoring query come up in a game tonight, did Elizabeth provide clarification?

  130. It’s possible I’ve missed it but did we ever get an official resolution to the question about the House Wren’s ability?
    All the other birds with a ‘play a second bird in your ‘x’ habitat can only live in one habitat and only have one habitat quoted but this bird lives in two habitats and has an either ‘x’ or ‘y’ choice. In the case of the House Wren can we play the second bird in a different habitat to the first or does it have to be the same habitat?

        1. Question from our maiden game: several actions include a “draw a [image of rear face of bird card]“ instruction. Does this include the bird cards that are placed face up on the card holder or only the stack of face down bird cards? When can the face up bird cards be drawn, only when playing the “draw a bird card” action?

          Is it correct that at the end of a round the bird feeder is not restocked with all dice / the dice are not re-rolled?

  131. I’ve seen a couple of posts about running out of eggs. Tonight we had a four player game and we finished 15 eggs short.
    Will there be a way to buy sets of eggs?

  132. Just when I thought I’d got every rule worked out, along comes the Oologist.
    If I have one bird in each habitat with two eggs on each, is that two sets or does each set have to be achieved by being on different birds?

  133. Sorry to revisit the typo problem again but when we get the British/European version can we have colour spelt properly!

  134. First of all, sorry if this posted multiple times. The first time I tried to post, it led to a message the the site was down. I refreshed that page.

    One question says:

    Yes, regular reroll rules apply (see “Managing the birdfeeder”). Birds affected: Great Crested Flycatcher, Indigo Bunting, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Western Tanager
    But this BGG post stated the bunting would NOT be able to reroll due to the “if available” wording. Has this ruling changed?

    PS some of the formatting isn’t being applied, like [accordion] [toggle title=”Rule Questions”]

  135. It’s a minor nitpick, but why were 4 plastic trays included when there’s 5 kinds of food to separate? Are they not supposed to be used for the food tokens?

    Would it be possible to order one more plastic tray? :P

    1. Please see the chart on the side of the box. It shows food tokens going in 2 of the trays and eggs going in the other 2 trays. The egg colors are purely aesthetic–they should all be mixed together, not separated.

      We do sell plastic trays on our webstore.

  136. What is shown on the little map of the world on each bird card? The region this bird can be spotted? Or the breeding ground? I have the impression that there are a lot of birds that I have seen here in Europe but Europe is not marked on the map for these birds.

  137. I’m working on the assumption (hoping) that the first expansion will be UK/Europe. I just spent 10 mins on Facebook writing a post and adding a poll for people to suggest birds to you, unfortunately it wouldn’t post.
    Is there a way we can feed back to you what we’d like?
    Do you want that sort of input?

      1. Expansions would be awesome! More birds with new actions, maybe the new deck can add more die faces for food, like other fruit, flowers, lizards, or leggy bugs or winged bugs that can be played with more players. A board expansion to more rounds or an additional environment of higher perching birds, cave dwellers, or some other unique territory. Maybe a possibility of eggs breaking or raccoons or snakes eating them. Then a giant size game with life size eggs💕 so many awesome possibilities! Can’t wait:)

  138. I’m intrigued to know what the scores were like in play-testing. Now that people have received their games there seem to be some ridiculously high scores.

  139. you know, it’s nice to get replacements for the 2 cards with errors in the numbers, but the art mistake is just as important. just imagine if all the birds had exactly the same art. don’t you think it would affect gameplay? gameplay is not just rules (numbers) but also theme. the error in the art affects gameplay in the sense that it affects the theme. also, as a Champion, I would rather get a correct game later than an incorrect game sooner, and I feel penalized for actually being a Champion and getting a game with so many mistakes. I have noticed that you always listen to suggestions with an open mind, so I hope you will consider treating the error in the art of 1 card on par with the errors in the numbers of the other 2 cards, and find a way to get all 3 in the hands of Champions and other 1st edition buyers.

  140. Situation: I want to take 3 food from the bird feeder and there are only two available and they are differing types.
    Can I take one and reroll all the dice (all the same rule) or do I have to take the two and the reroll?

  141. If you need some more help on proofreading, I have done it for several games so far. I’m not the best on syntax and advanced grammar and such (as English is not my first language, but I’m sure you have a lot of English speaking proofreader already) but I’m great at finding all the small mistakes and difference between cards, rule book and other things that were not changed everywhere even when found. I can proofread rule books, but also all the printed material. If you want my help, feel free to reach out.

    On another note, can’t wait for my copy this week!


      But this BGG post says for the indigo bunting, you cannot reroll due to the “if available” wording. Has this ruling changed?

      (Also, the formatting didn’t take in places, like [accordion] [toggle title=”Rule Questions”])

  142. If you need some more help on proofreading, I have done it for several games so far. I’m not the best on syntax and more advance grammar and such (as English is not my first language, but I’m sure you have a lot of English speaking proofreader already) but I’m great at finding all the small mistakes and differences/inconsistencies between cards, rule book and other things that were not changed everywhere even when found (so this applies to rule book but also all the printed material). So if you want my help feel free to reach out. Can’t wait to get my copy!

  143. When reading through the rules I noticed a typo on the pink cards.

    It says BETWEEEN instead of BETWEEN.

    Will this be fixed?

    1. This game has been a blessing for my family during quarantine. Thank you!

      Two questions:

      1. Player 1 has a pink power that allows them to gain wheat between turns when another player gains food. Player 2 gains food, leaving only one berry in the tray. Player 1 activates their pink power and rerolls all cubes, but none of them are wheat so they fail to gain food. If player 3 then gains food on their turn, can Player 1 activate their pink power again since it did not succeed but they did roll food cubes?

      2. If a player uses a blue power that allows them to play a bird at the end of a round and the bird they play using that blue power also has a blue power, can the second bird’s blue power activate that round?

      1. 1. No. Choosing to reroll the dice is choosing to activate the pink power, and it can’t be activated more than once between turns.

        2. Yes, you can activate blue powers in any order, so if one allows you to play a new blue power, you can activate the new one that round.

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