Wingspan
276 questions players ask about Wingspan, answered in plain words and graded by where the answer comes from. See also the full rulebook.
Updated 2026-10-27.
276 questions players ask about Wingspan, answered in plain words and graded by where the answer comes from. See also the full rulebook.
Updated 2026-10-27.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2021, consistent with the rulebook's "Player Setup" section.
Five items in total. You are dealt 5 birds and 5 food (one of each type), and every bird card you keep costs you one of those food tokens — so 5 birds and no food, 3 birds and 2 food, or even no birds and all 5 food are all legal. The food-for-card trade applies only to this opening hand; cards you draw later in the game cost nothing extra.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2020, consistent with the rulebook's "Global Components" section.
Yes — the global setup fills the bird tray with 3 face-up cards and tosses the dice into the birdfeeder before anyone picks a starting hand, so you can take both into account when deciding which birds, food and bonus card to keep. The first player is chosen afterwards.
The rulebook keeps the bird discard face up, and Stonemaier Games confirmed on BGG in 2025 that the bonus discard is face up too.
Face up, both of them. The rulebook keeps the bird discard pile face up, and Stonemaier later confirmed the bonus card discard is face up too so there's only one rule to remember. Players may look through the bird discard pile, ideally without slowing the game; tables that want more hidden information can house-rule otherwise.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2025.
Once everyone has chosen their starting hand, shuffle all the unwanted birds together and use them to start the face-up discard pile (players who care can hold their discards face down until then). For casual games the order hardly matters, but this gives competitive tables a fixed rule.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2019, consistent with the rulebook's "Player Setup" section.
No — each player may keep their hand private or public throughout the game, and that includes bonus cards. Most groups keep them hidden, but nothing requires it. Either way, the number of cards in your hand is public.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2021, consistent with the rulebook's "When you choose to lay eggs, do the following" section.
No — the different egg colors are purely cosmetic. Take any egg from the supply when you lay one.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2019, consistent with the rulebook's "Managing food tokens" section.
Keep playing with a substitute. Neither food nor eggs are limited by the component count, so use other tokens or coins in their place.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2026, consistent with the rulebook's "Swift-Start Guides and Cards" section.
Yes — after your learning game, shuffle the 10 Swift-Start birds (marked with gray corners) into the main deck; they play like any other bird. The corner marks just let you pull them back out if you want to teach with the Swift-Start guides again.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2022, consistent with the rulebook's "Swift-Start Guides and Cards" section.
There are only 4 guides, so the fifth player — ideally someone who already knows the game — does the normal setup (choosing their own birds and food) and plays without a guide, following along with the others' examples.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2025.
Officially there is just one bird deck. If you keep several face-down stacks on the table, pick one to be the top of the deck and draw from it first, refilling it from the others — it's the same as setting aside part of the deck. Using several truly independent draw piles is a house rule.
Yes — Stonemaier says the promo packs work with the base game and any combination of expansions.
The rulebook answers this in its "Overview" section.
One per turn. On your turn you place a single action cube, resolve that action (and any powers it activates), and then play passes clockwise; the round ends once everyone has placed all their cubes.
The rulebook answers this in its "Round Structure" section.
8 in round 1, 7 in round 2, 6 in round 3 and 5 in round 4 — 26 in all. You have 8 cubes, and each round one more of them ends up on the goal board marking your score, so you have one fewer cube to act with.
The rulebook answers this in its "Turn Structure" section.
No — there is no passing, but you are never stuck: you can always take the gain food, lay eggs or draw cards action, even in an empty habitat.
The rulebook answers this in its "DESIGNER’S NOTE" section.
Yes — you may choose any of the four actions on any turn, as often as you like, as long as you have cubes left. The rulebook explicitly says repeating an action is allowed.
Yes — put your cube on the leftmost empty space of that row and take what it shows (for example, 1 card in an empty wetland). With no birds there are simply no brown powers to activate.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2019, consistent with the rulebook's "When you choose to play a bird, do the following" section.
No — you choose the habitat (row) among those shown on the card, but the bird always goes in the leftmost empty slot of that row. That slot's column sets the egg cost, and your action cube goes on the Play a Bird space above it.
The rulebook answers this in its "When you choose to play a bird, do the following" section.
No — the egg costs printed above the columns apply only when you play a bird into that column: 1 egg for columns 2–3 and 2 eggs for columns 4–5, taken from any of your birds. You pay only the cost of the single column the bird goes into, and the other three actions never cost eggs.
The rulebook answers this in its "When you choose to play a bird, do the following" section.
No — playing a bird is the one action that activates no row. You pay the cost, place the bird, and use only its own white "when played" power, if it has one.
Several experienced players agree on this; there is no official ruling.
No — the action plays exactly one bird. Only a bird power that explicitly lets you play another bird gets you a second one on the same turn.
Yes — nothing limits a Play a Bird space to one cube, so you can play birds into the same column on different turns of a round.
When paying a bird's food cost, any 2 food tokens — matching or not — can stand in for 1 food of any type, and you may do this as many times as needed for that bird (4 tokens can cover 2 missing fish). The trade is only part of paying for the bird: the substituted food never enters your supply, so you can't convert food to keep for later.
No — the 2-for-1 substitution is only for paying a bird's food cost when you play it. A power that asks you to discard a specific food needs that exact food.
Several experienced players agree on this; there is no official ruling.
A slash means "or" — pay any one of the foods shown. A plus means you pay all of them. The wild (multi-colored) symbol means any one food of your choice.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2018, consistent with the rulebook's "When you choose to play a bird, do the following" section.
No — a played bird stays where it is for the rest of the game unless a power says otherwise. Each habitat holds at most 5 birds, so once a row is full you can't play more birds there.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2019.
Yes — every row has a sixth action space at the far right that never holds a bird. Place your cube there, take its benefit, and activate the row right to left as usual; you can use it as often as you have cubes.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2020.
Yes — under Wingspan's official "friendly" reading you may always take less of a benefit to yourself. The exceptions: in a "do X, then Y" power you must do X to get Y, and you can't skip the part of a power that benefits other players except by not activating that power at all. An early contrary answer (that actions must be taken in full) was superseded.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2019.
No — resolve the action step by step. Take the guaranteed food, eggs or cards first, see what you got, then decide whether to pay for the extra one. The choice must be made before you start activating birds in that row.
The rulebook answers this in its "When you choose to lay eggs, do the following" section.
No — the bonus trade on a slot can be used at most once per action: one card for one food, one food for one egg, or one egg for one card.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2021, consistent with the rulebook's "Managing the birdfeeder" section.
Only when every die left in the feeder shows the identical face (a single remaining die always qualifies) and you are about to gain food from the feeder for any reason — the forest action, the bonus food, or a bird power. You then throw all 5 dice back in. Rerolling is optional; the only forced reroll is when the feeder is completely empty.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2020.
Yes — you take the dice one at a time, and before each one you check the feeder again. If, say, the feeder shows worm, worm, fish and you're taking two food, you can take the fish, reroll because only matching worms remain, then take your second food. This can happen several times in one action.
Yes — whenever you're about to gain food and all dice show one face, you may reroll, even immediately after a previous reroll. Each reroll always uses all five dice.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2020, consistent with the rulebook's "Managing the birdfeeder" section.
No — the invertebrate/seed face counts as its own unique face, so a plain seed (or plain invertebrate) next to it is not "all the same." Two invertebrate/seed faces do match, and you can reroll then. With one seed and one invertebrate/seed die, take one first; the lone die left then lets you reroll.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2021, consistent with the rulebook's "When you choose to gain food, do the following" section.
It gives one food — your choice of invertebrate or seed, not both. For any power that gains a seed or an invertebrate from the feeder (Red-bellied Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, Great Crested Flycatcher, and so on) the dual face counts as that food; it is only treated as distinct when checking whether you may reroll.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2020.
Yes — the normal reroll rule applies whenever you are about to gain food from the feeder, bird powers included. If all dice show the same face you may reroll, then check for the food you need; if it still isn't there, you gain nothing. If the dice show mixed faces and none is the food you need, you can't reroll. Stonemaier's earliest answers said "if available" blocked rerolls, but that was reversed after consulting the designer.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2022, consistent with the rulebook's "Managing the birdfeeder" section.
No — the reroll option only exists when you're about to take food from the birdfeeder. Food that comes from the supply doesn't involve the feeder at all.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2019, consistent with the rulebook's "Managing the birdfeeder" section.
At once. The moment the last die is taken, all five dice are thrown back in — before any further powers resolve. That means a power that rolls the dice outside the feeder can never roll all five. (An early digital tutorial that refilled at end of turn was a bug.)
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2019, consistent with the rulebook's "END OF THE ROUND" section.
No — only the bird tray is refreshed between rounds. The dice stay as they are until the feeder empties or someone is allowed a reroll during play.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2021.
No — you must first commit to gaining food. Only then may you reroll (if all dice show the same face), and you continue with that action whatever comes up.
No — you must commit to paying the card first; then, if all remaining dice match, you may reroll before taking the extra food, and you're stuck with whatever comes up. The one exception is when your basic food empties the feeder: it refills immediately, so you see the new dice before deciding to pay the card.
The rulebook answers this in its "When you choose to gain food, do the following" section.
Yes — you take it as a die from the dice still in the birdfeeder, just like your other food from the action.
The rulebook answers this in its "When you choose to gain food, do the following" section.
No — you take one die per food icon on the space where you placed your cube, and gain one food token for each die you remove.
Several experienced players agree on this; there is no official ruling.
Yes — you may take any die that shows the food you want, so taking the dual die (for instance to deny it to others) is fine.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2026, consistent with the rulebook's "Managing the birdfeeder" section.
No — once a die is out of the feeder for any reason, it stays out until the feeder is reset. Taking a specific food from the feeder removes that die, dice rolled by "roll all dice not in the birdfeeder" stay outside, and so does a die rolled by a "roll any die" power.
Any die, whether inside or outside the birdfeeder. Roll it outside the feeder and leave it there.
All five — resetting means gathering every die, in and out of the feeder, and rolling them all back in.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2020.
No — both mean take any one die from the feeder and gain its food. The different icons are just an inconsistency, and later printings of American Redstart use the die icon.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2021.
Yes — any food gained from the birdfeeder takes its die out of the feeder, whether the food goes to your supply or is cached on a bird.
The rulebook answers this in its "When you choose to lay eggs, do the following" section.
Yes — lay them on any combination of your birds, including all on one bird, as long as no bird goes over the egg limit printed on its card.
The rulebook answers this in its "When you choose to lay eggs, do the following" section.
No — once laid, an egg stays on that bird for the rest of the game unless it is discarded (for example to pay an egg cost).
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2019, consistent with the rulebook's "When you choose to lay eggs, do the following" section.
Yes — you can take it, for instance just to activate your grassland brown powers. Any eggs your birds can't hold are simply lost, and you can always choose to lay fewer than you're allowed.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2021, consistent with the rulebook's "Types of nests" section.
Yes — a star nest is wild everywhere a nest type is checked: bird powers (such as laying eggs on bowl-nest birds), end-of-round goals and bonus cards. It can even count as a different type for each check, e.g. a bowl for a power and a platform for the round goal, and it can satisfy several nest bonus cards at once.
Several experienced players agree on this; there is no official ruling.
It's intentional, not a misprint: cowbirds are brood parasites that lay their eggs in other birds' nests, so their cards have no nest type and can't hold eggs.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2019, consistent with the rulebook's "When you choose to draw cards, do the following:" section.
Yes — each card can come from the face-up tray or the top of the deck, in any order you like. The tray is not refilled mid-turn, so taking a face-up card doesn't reveal a new one until your turn ends.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2019.
Yes — a plain "draw" lets you choose the tray or the deck, just like the wetland action. Only powers that say "from the deck" are limited to the face-down deck (and "from the tray" to the tray). "Gain a card" and "draw a card" mean the same thing for bird cards.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2023, consistent with the rulebook's "Managing the bird deck" section.
At the end of the active player's turn — never mid-turn. If you take all three face-up birds, any further draws that turn (yours or other players') have to come from the deck. Pink powers triggered during the turn, and your own end-of-turn powers, resolve before the refill.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2020, consistent with the rulebook's "Managing the bird deck" section.
Shuffle the discard pile to form a new deck and keep going.
By the strict rules, nobody can draw birds and the tray can't be refilled — you can still take the wetland action for its brown powers. The designer's suggested fix: note everyone's tucked-card counts, then shuffle the tucked cards into a new deck.
Each such power you activate costs its own discard, so three of them mean three discards at end of turn. You may discard any card, including one you just drew. If your hand is empty by then (say you tucked everything), there's nothing to discard and no penalty. You may also let play continue and refill the tray while you decide what to discard.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2019, consistent with the rulebook's "Powers on bird cards fall into 3 categories" section.
Yes — every bird power is optional. When your cube reaches a brown-power bird you may skip it; if you skip it, nobody gets anything from it, and if you activate it, you and anyone else it affects use it.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2022.
Yes — taking a benefit is always each player's choice. Once you activate a power like Anna's Hummingbird or Red Crossbill, every player, including you, may take the benefit or refuse it (someone might refuse to spoil a later power that checks what they have).
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2020, consistent with the rulebook's "Powers on bird cards fall into 3 categories" section.
Right to left — after taking the row's main benefit, you move your cube from the rightmost bird toward the left edge, activating each brown power (optionally) as you pass it. You can't pick a different order.
The rulebook answers this in its "Powers on bird cards fall into 3 categories" section.
A brown "when activated" power can be used every time you take that habitat's action. A white "when played" power is used only once, when the bird is played, and never again. Brown powers do not trigger when the bird is played.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2026.
Yes — in Wingspan "X, then Y" means X is a prerequisite for Y. With Snow Bunting, for example, no tuck means no draw. If X is itself optional ("you may…"), the prerequisite counts as met whether or not you do it.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2022.
Yes — the tuck comes first and is legal on its own; the egg that doesn't fit is simply lost. The reverse doesn't work: you can't lay the egg without tucking. And where a power allows more eggs than you want, you may lay fewer or none.
Yes — zero is the fewest, so a player with no birds in that habitat qualifies. This differs from end-of-round goals, where you need at least one of the item to score.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2021.
Everyone tied for fewest benefits — even all players. If you, the active player, aren't among them, you can still choose not to activate the power.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2019.
If the card doesn't say, go in turn order starting with the active player. When the card says "starting with the player of your choice" (such as Ruby-throated Hummingbird), you may pick yourself — useful because only the player about to take food may reroll the feeder.
Birds actually in that habitat on your mat. "Fewest wetland birds" counts the birds in your wetland row, not every card showing a wetland icon.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2019.
No — unless a power explicitly says otherwise, it affects only your own mat and supply, so "any bird" means any of your own birds. The designer briefly allowed eggs on opponents' birds in 2019, but reversed that ruling in early 2020.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2025.
Your own food — the tokens next to your mat (your personal supply). "The supply" on its own means the general supply. The term "your supply" first appeared in the European Expansion and "personal"/"general supply" in Oceania, and they're used consistently.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2025.
Generally no — tucked cards can go face down unseen. But when whether you may tuck depends on the card (a predator that tucks only birds under a certain wingspan, for example), show it so others can check.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2020.
No — both wordings mean the same tuck.
No — any bird card can be tucked behind any bird. The only limits are those written on the bird doing the tucking.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2020.
No — a bird can hold any number of tucked cards and cached food, each worth 1 point at game end.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2020.
No — Stonemaier has made no official changes to these cards and has no plans to. Groups that find them too strong are free to house-rule them.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2020, consistent with the rulebook's "Powers on bird cards fall into 3 categories" section.
Once in the span between the end of one of your turns and the start of your next, no matter how many opponents take turns in between or how many times the trigger happens. After it fires it waits until you've taken another turn. Over a round it can therefore trigger several times (up to once per turn you take), but never on your own turn.
No — it resets when you take your own turn, not when a round ends. If it fired after your last turn of a round, it can't fire again until after your first turn of the next round. In a 2-player game, if you take the last turn of one round and the first turn of the next, nobody plays in between, so your pink powers can't trigger there.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2020.
Yes — the game isn't over until everyone has finished, so opponents' remaining turns can still trigger your pink powers (once, as usual). The same applies after your last turn of each round.
No — your pink powers only ever trigger on other players' turns. Even if your action sets off an opponent's pink power (say a European Goldfinch tucking), whatever that power does can't trigger your own pink birds because it's still your turn. In a game of 3 or more, though, one opponent's pink power can trigger a different opponent's.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2021.
No — pink powers trigger only from things done during a player's turn. Round-end and game-end steps happen when it's nobody's turn, so a Ruff tucking at round end won't trigger European Goldfinch, and a predator activated at round end won't trigger Turkey Vulture.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2020.
Right after the active player finishes the step that triggered it; then the active player carries on with their turn. For example, when an opponent takes the lay eggs action, they lay their eggs, your American Avocet or cowbird lays its egg, and then they activate their grassland brown powers. Pink powers that say "at the end of their turn" wait until the turn is over.
Yes — the active player fully resolves the bird's white power first, then the triggered pink power activates.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2023.
Turn order, starting with the player to the left of the active player. This matters when the powers compete for the same birdfeeder dice. If several of your own pink powers trigger together, you choose their order.
You can wait — pink powers are optional, so declining one trigger keeps it available for a later one. But once you do anything with it, such as rerolling the feeder for it, it counts as used even if you end up with nothing. If you simply can't take anything and don't reroll, it wasn't activated.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2020.
Yes — each bird's pink power is tracked separately, so one triggering event can activate both (or you can use one now and keep the other for a later trigger).
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2021.
No — each pink power fires at most once between your turns. Eastern Kingbird gains one invertebrate however many forest birds are played, Belted Kingfisher gives one fish even if a second wetland bird follows, and European Goldfinch tucks one card even if four were tucked.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2021.
Yes — a newly played pink-power bird is live immediately and can trigger on the next opponent's turn.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2019.
No — pink powers that mention the "gain food" action trigger only when the opponent takes the forest action itself and gains the food from it. Food from brown powers, predators caching rodents, or an Anna's Hummingbird in another row doesn't count. Likewise "lay eggs" action powers such as American Avocet trigger only on the grassland action.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2020.
Neither. They trigger only when the opponent actually plays a bird into the named habitat. A multi-habitat bird played elsewhere doesn't count, and moving a bird isn't playing it. A bird played through another bird's power (e.g. Goldcrest) does count as played.
Several experienced players agree on this; there is no official ruling on the definition itself.
A predator succeeds when its power actually tucks a card or caches food — the drawn bird is small enough, or the dice show the right food. A miss isn't a success. Any predator power that succeeds counts, and you wait until that power has fully resolved before using your pink power.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2023.
No — its power lays the egg on another bird with a matching nest, not on the Avocet.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2026.
Tuck right away when the opponent tucks (after their triggering power resolves), then draw your card at the end of their turn. The tuck is required for the draw. End-of-turn pink draws happen before the tray is refilled, so you may face a partly empty tray.
Yes — with "may cache" (Acorn Woodpecker, Blue Jay, Steller's Jay, Red-headed Woodpecker…) you decide as you gain it: cache it on the bird for a point at game end, or put it in your supply to spend. Powers that just say "cache," including food gained from the supply to cache, give no choice — the food must go on the bird.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2023, consistent with the rulebook's "Powers on bird cards fall into 3 categories" section.
No — cached food stays on the bird and is worth 1 point at game end; it can't be spent on bird costs or power costs (Sandhill Crane, for example). The only exceptions are birds whose own power says the food cached on them can be spent, such as Coal Tit and Eurasian Nuthatch.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2019.
No — you can cache food only where a bird's power tells you to. Food from the gain food action, or from powers that don't mention caching, goes to your supply.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2020.
No — cached food has been used for points and isn't in your supply. It doesn't count for the unused-food tiebreaker, and powers that take food from another player's supply can't touch it.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2020.
No — "gain all" is a single gain. You may reroll beforehand if the feeder qualifies (all one face), then take every matching die showing, and the power is done. If taking them empties the feeder and it refills, the new dice are not yours.
Roll only the dice currently outside the feeder; dice inside it are ignored. If any rolled die shows the target food, cache exactly one of that food from the supply, however many dice hit. The rolled dice stay outside the feeder. Because an empty feeder refills at once, you can never roll more than 4 dice, and with none outside there's nothing to roll.
Several experienced players agree on this; there is no official ruling.
No — the card comes from the top of the face-down deck, so the result isn't known in advance. If the wingspan is less than the number shown ("<75cm" means under 75 cm), tuck it; otherwise discard it.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2021.
No — their powers refer to the predator icon, but the vultures themselves aren't predators for goals, bonus cards or other powers. Only birds showing the predator icon are predators; the icon has no rules of its own beyond being identified by other cards.
Yes — the seed comes from the birdfeeder, so remove that die. The appendix's "Food From the Supply" heading only covers the birds listed directly under it.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2019.
Each player, including you, may take one die from the birdfeeder, in order starting with the player you choose. Normal feeder rules apply for each pick: whoever is about to take food may reroll if all dice match, and an emptied feeder refills at once. Nobody is forced to take food.
Your choice — the wild icon means any food type, taken from the general supply rather than the birdfeeder.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2025.
No — it's a flocking power. Power types follow the real bird's behaviour, not whether the power involves luck.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2019.
Yes — it can repeat any other brown power in the same habitat, on either side of it, whether or not that bird has activated this turn. When the cube reaches the repeat bird, activate the chosen bird's power right then, then carry on leftward; a bird on the left can thus activate twice in one turn.
The repeated bird. "Repeat" means activating that other bird again, not copying its power onto the repeating bird, so anything the power puts on "this bird" goes on the original.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2019.
No — repeating activates the migrating bird, so only that bird could move, and only if it is the rightmost bird in the habitat. A migrating bird stuck to the left of the catbird stays stuck even when repeated.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2020.
No to both — it repeats only brown powers of birds in the same habitat on your own mat. A "when played" power (such as Northern Goshawk's) can't be repeated.
Several experienced players agree on this; there is no official ruling.
No useful loop exists — each repeats one brown power once. Repeating the other repeat bird just passes along its single repeat, so together they let you repeat at most two other brown powers in that habitat.
Yes — a lone bird counts as the rightmost bird, so it may move. It can be played in any column; the condition just means no bird may sit to its right.
The cube stays in the row you activated and continues left. If the next bird is also a mover, it is now the rightmost bird and can move too — if both go to the same habitat, the first one to move ends up to the left of the second.
The bird keeps its eggs (the moving birds can't tuck or cache, so nothing else is on them). It goes into the leftmost open slot of the new habitat with no egg cost and no benefit from that space, and the move doesn't count as playing a bird.
It goes in the same habitat as the bird with the power — "forest or grassland" describes where the first bird can be played, not a free choice for the second. You pay its full normal cost: food plus the egg cost of its column, and the 2-food-for-1 trade is allowed as usual.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2019.
Yes — resolve each bird's power in turn; if the bird you play also lets you play another bird, use it too, paying the full cost each time. The word "second" isn't a limit.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2020.
Its white "when played" power resolves as normal, but it gets no habitat action and doesn't activate any brown powers. A bird played into a row mid-activation (Goldcrest during the forest action) lands to the right of the cube, so its brown power isn't reached that turn.
They work in whatever habitat they're played in — the appendix mention of the wetland just describes how they combine with the draw action. The egg can come from any of your birds, including the Killdeer or Gull itself, and the cards may come from the tray or the deck in any mix.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2021.
Yes, if the bird itself meets the requirement — a "when played: lay 1 egg on each bird with a [nest]" power includes the bird just played. Only powers that say "another bird" (Barrow's Goldeneye, American Avocet, the crows and ravens' egg discard) exclude the bird itself.
No — the additional egg must go on a different bird with the required nest (a star nest qualifies). Neither egg has to go on the bird with the power.
Play the card as printed: it uses the normal draw symbol, so you may build the set of players+1 cards from the tray and/or the deck. Stonemaier ruled in 2020 that the card overrides the older appendix wording. You look at the cards, pick one, and pass the rest so each player chooses in turn.
Only one or two replies address this and there is no official ruling, so treat it as the best available reading.
Yes — it's leftover wording from when bonus cards were called goal cards. The power draws bonus cards.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2019, consistent with the rulebook's "END OF THE ROUND" section.
Yes. In order: everyone removes their action cubes from their mat, the round's goal is scored, all face-up birds in the tray are discarded and replaced with 3 new ones, and the first-player token passes clockwise. The tray reset is easy to forget; the birdfeeder is not rerolled.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2023.
Strictly, yes — refill at the end of that turn as always, then discard and replace the whole tray as a round-end step. Since the refill gets discarded straight away, it only matters when something interacts with those cards or the top of the discard pile; otherwise skipping it is harmless.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2025.
Left to right. That officially endorsed method keeps the top of the discard pile unambiguous for birds that care about it, without shuffling just three cards.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2020, consistent with the rulebook's "Green: Majority of the targeted item" section.
No — you need at least 1 of the counted item to score at all. With zero your cube goes on the 0 space, even if that would otherwise have been a placing (say, second of two players).
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2020, consistent with the rulebook's "Green: Majority of the targeted item" section.
Tied players all put their cubes on the tied place, add the points of that place and the places below it they jointly cover, divide by the number tied and round down. The next player skips to the following place. Three players tied for first on a 7/4/3 goal each get 4 points, and the fourth player takes fourth.
No — tucked cards are no longer birds. Nothing printed on them (habitat, nest, food, name) counts for goals or bonus cards; each is simply worth 1 point at game end. Goals and bonus cards that specifically count tucked cards are the exception.
One set is one egg in each habitat; which birds or columns hold them doesn't matter, and they can all be on one bird per row. In practice your score is the egg total of your habitat with the fewest eggs — no eggs in any habitat means zero sets.
Several experienced players agree on this; there is no official ruling.
For goals counting eggs in a habitat or in a nest type, yes — every egg counts, including several on one bird. Goals showing a bird icon with a nest and an egg count birds of that nest type that have at least one egg, so a bird counts once however many eggs it holds.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2019.
No — it counts every bird on your mat played so far in the game, but not tucked cards.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2019.
No — food bonus cards count only birds whose cost shows that exact food symbol. A wild symbol can be paid with any food but isn't a seed, fish, rodent or fruit for scoring purposes, for players or the Automa. (Star nests are the opposite: they do count as every nest type.)
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2019.
Yes — the word "only" on the first printing was a mistake. Any bird with at least one rodent symbol in its cost counts, even if it eats other foods too, just like Fishery Manager and the other diet cards. Wild food symbols still don't count as rodents.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2020.
Only birds whose food cost is invertebrates and nothing else. A bird with an invertebrate plus a wild symbol (like Yellow-billed Cuckoo) doesn't count, nor do birds with no food cost. A bird costing two invertebrates counts once — the card counts birds, not icons. Food Web Expert is the only diet card with this "only" restriction.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2019.
Yes — any bird with at least one of that food symbol anywhere in its cost counts, including in an either/or cost.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2019.
4–5 birds score 3 points and 6 or more score 6. The first printing misprinted the lower tier; corrected cards came in a replacement pack.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2019.
Yes — it's a known misprint, corrected in Stonemaier's official FAQ.
No — the official stance is simple: if the word is on the card or appendix list, it counts; if not, it doesn't. Etymology doesn't add birds (Dickcissel isn't Anatomist), letter strings aren't enough ("Burrowing" isn't "wing"), and only common names count, not scientific ones. Counting other words is a fine house rule.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2020.
Yes — a listed word counts even when embedded in a word (Bluebird, Blackbird, Goldeneye, Spoonbill, Waxwing, Canvasback), and "Golden" counts as the color gold. One bird can count for several word cards at once: Barrow's Goldeneye qualifies for Historian, Photographer and Anatomist.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2026.
Yes — each expansion rulebook lists additional terms for the word-based bonus cards (for example European for Cartographer, "back" for Anatomist). Inflected forms of listed words also count, such as Rosy for rose.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2023.
Yes — Prairie was officially added (it was missing from early printings), and current printings of the card list it. Inca also counts, as it's printed on the card.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2019.
Yes, the appendix list is exhaustive: words not on it don't count, so the "tit" in Bushtit doesn't qualify. Crown is on the appendix list and counts, even though early printings of the card leave it off.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2020.
Yes, both. Northern Bobwhite counts by an official ruling (even though its name comes from its call), and Snow Bunting counts because "snow" is on the color list. Otherwise the rule is simple: a word counts only if it's on the list.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2022.
Localization partners were allowed to choose their own terms and adjust the percentages to fit their translated bird names. Play by your edition's cards and lists; questions about a translated card are settled by that edition's publisher.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2020.
Yes — Bird Counter counts every bird with the flocking icon, whatever the color of its power; the appendix's mention of brown powers is only an example.
No — it only repeats another bird's predator power and isn't a predator itself. Only birds with the predator icon count.
Equal wingspans count toward the sequence, so 30, 50, 50, 60 is 4 birds. The birds must be consecutive in the row: 30, 100, 50, 60 scores only the longest run. A bird with a * (wild) wingspan stands in for a single value that fits the sequence.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2019.
Count only your habitat with the fewest birds; a tie just means you count one of the tied habitats once. If any habitat is empty, that count is 0 and the card scores nothing.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2019, consistent with the rulebook's "BONUS CARDS" section.
Yes — there's no limit. Birds that give you a new bonus card (California Condor, Atlantic Puffin and others) add to the one you already have, and you score every bonus card you hold at game end.
Shuffle the discarded bonus cards into a new deck and keep drawing.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2020.
Yes, roughly — rather than reprinting bonus cards, the expansions were designed so their birds keep the printed percentages correct within a couple of points for any combination of sets.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2023.
No — the Asia versions replace the originals, so remove the base-game copies; each bonus card should appear only once.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2022.
A plus means that many or more, so 4+ includes exactly 4. Tiers don't stack — you score only the highest tier you reach — and if you're below the lowest tier you score nothing. The percentage at the bottom is just how many birds qualify, not a scoring tier.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2021, consistent with the rulebook's "BONUS CARDS" section.
No — you score only the bonus cards you hold.
Several experienced players agree on this; there is no official ruling.
No — Prairie Manager counts only birds whose sole habitat is grassland.
Stonemaier answered this directly on BGG in 2020.
Birds named after a person — in practice any bird with an apostrophe-s in its name. "Carolina" names refer to a place, so they don't count.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2023, consistent with the rulebook's "Game End and Scoring" section.
No — unused food in your supply scores nothing; it only breaks ties (most unused food wins). Food cached on birds is the opposite: 1 point each, but it doesn't count for the tiebreaker.
The rulebook answers this in its "Game End and Scoring" section.
No — only birds played on your mat score their printed points. Cards in hand count only for a bonus card that specifically rewards cards in hand, and then it's the number of cards that matters.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2018, consistent with the rulebook's "Game End and Scoring" section.
Each tucked card and each cached food is worth exactly 1 point at game end, whatever is printed on the tucked card. They're points only: tucked cards can't be played or spent as cards, and cached food can't be spent as food (except on the few birds that say so).
A single experienced reply addresses this; the rulebook's end-of-game procedure has no step for playing more birds, but there's no official ruling.
Not in the base game — once your final cube is used you can't play more birds. A few European Expansion birds with round-end powers let you play an extra bird at the end of a round.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2020.
Yes — against the Automa you take the first turn of every round and the Automa always takes the last; the first-player token never passes to it. The Automa designers chose this so the Automa doesn't open rounds by wiping the tray and to keep upkeep simple.
The same number as you (8, 7, 6, 5), with the Automa always taking the last turn of the round. It can't run out of cards: at round end you remove a card from its deck and reshuffle.
No — in the standard solo rules the Automa never benefits from any bird power, and the game is balanced around that. (The later Automa's Hoard variant gives it hoard tokens in some of these cases instead.) For American Oystercatcher, draw 3 cards, keep 2 and discard the third.
Under the base solo rules, yes — the Automa takes no part in your brown powers and loses every comparison, so you get the benefit. If you play with Automa's Hoard, use the current rules instead: count her items from the icons on her current Automa card, and if she has the fewest she gains a hoard token.
Only when the Automa card shows the activate-pink-powers symbol. Nothing else the Automa does — taking food, laying eggs, playing birds — triggers them, even if it looks like a matching action. Resolve the card's actions from left to right.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2022.
It ignores its own cards and eggs. Its total for the goal is the number on its Automa goal-scoring card plus the cubes it has placed on that goal this round. On the green side compare that total with yours; on the blue side it scores that many points (capped by the board like a player). Like you, it needs a total above zero to score, and it can still place second with no cubes if its card value is above zero.
Pick up every tray bird that would count toward the Automa's bonus card in a normal game (star nests count for nest bonuses). It keeps the highest-valued one and discards the other matches; non-matching cards stay. If none match, it takes a face-down card from the deck and the tray is left alone. Its face-down-bird action instead discards all three tray birds and takes one face-down card.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2021.
Reroll first if the feeder qualifies. Then go through the food icons on the card from left to right, find the first food showing in the feeder, and remove ALL dice with that face. The Automa gains no tokens.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2019.
Draw a different bonus card for it. Breeding Manager, Backyard Birder and bonus cards without a percentage aren't used by the Automa.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2019.
Only how many points each of the Automa's face-down bird cards is worth at game end (3, 4 or 5). Adding the Automubon Society card to its deck makes it harder still.
By the rules, yes — refill after its turn, then discard and refill again as the normal round-end step. The Automa designer says skipping the second sweep is fine, as long as you decide before seeing the new cards.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2019.
Yes — you score exactly as in a multiplayer game. Only the Automa uses its own simplified scoring.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2022.
Both birds with a white "when played" power and birds with no power at all.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2020.
Every teal power on your mat triggers at the end of every round after the bird is played, whichever habitats you used — it doesn't depend on activating the row. They resolve before the round's goal is scored, so a bird played by one can count for that goal. Like all powers they're optional, and they never trigger pink powers.
The current round's first player resolves all of their teal powers, in the order they choose, then the next player clockwise, and so on. The tray was refilled at the end of the last turn, but it isn't refilled between teal powers — a later Hooded Crow or Ruff may face a partly empty tray. The tray is reset only after everyone's round-end powers are done.
Yes — you resolve your teal powers in any order, so the newly played bird's round-end power can be used in that same round-end phase.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2020.
No — each round-end power resolves separately, in the order you choose. Once the first bird lays eggs in that habitat it's no longer empty, so the second can't target it.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2019.
No — you must actually have placed an action cube in all four rows that round. A bird played by a power doesn't count as using the Play a Bird action.
Only goals that count birds: total birds, birds in a habitat or row, birds with no eggs, birds of a nest type with eggs, birds with tucked cards, beak direction, birds worth 3 or less, and so on. They don't double anything on or about the bird — eggs, food costs, filled columns, cubes or tucked cards. Stonemaier's first answer (double for anything printed on the card) was corrected.
No — bird powers only work once the bird is played on your mat. In your hand it's just one card.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2020.
Yes — the count can exceed 5, which matters on the green side where only the ranking counts. The blue side still caps the score at 5 points per goal.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2021.
No — placing a bird sideways is optional, and you can play one in the 5th column (forgoing the sideways power). A sideways bird covers two slots, so it counts toward two filled columns and moves that row's action space along, but it is still one bird for goals and scoring. Beak direction is read with the card upright. A sideways Common Blackbird played into an empty row pays the lower egg cost, which is zero.
Instead of paying costs, you may play the bird over any bird in a habitat where it can live — it doesn't have to be the rightmost. The covered bird becomes a tucked card; its eggs and cached food are discarded (the card text includes food, even where the rulebook text omits it), and cards already tucked under it stay. Over a sideways bird, the new bird also goes sideways. You can even cover the bird whose power just let you play it.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2020.
For each rodent (or other named food) in the cost you may tuck a card from your hand behind the bird instead, so it can be paid entirely with cards. You still pay the column's egg cost, and a bird played through a "play a second bird" power can use this alternative too. Paying this way counts as a successful predator, so it can trigger Turkey Vulture and similar pink powers.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2022.
No — tucking from your hand is part of the power's cost, so if you use it you must tuck one of the two cards and keep the other. Stonemaier's 2022 ruling replaced an older Facebook-group answer that allowed keeping both.
Yes — seed cached on these birds can be spent any time you could spend seed from your supply, including power costs like House Sparrow or Canada Goose. It still isn't part of your supply for goals or the unused-food tiebreaker.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2020.
No — "your supply" means the food you've collected, so you must have the seed to cache it. Nutcracker can place it on up to five birds regardless of what they eat.
No — only food tokens in your personal supply count; cached food is on the birds, not in your supply.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2020.
Count every food symbol in the costs of all birds on your mat, wild symbols included. An either/or (slash) cost counts as one, and birds with no food cost add nothing.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2020.
No — it counts every played bird with at least one card tucked behind it, however the card got there (predators included). The icon just shows a bird with a tucked card.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2026.
The expansion rulebook recommends the green side, because some new goals suit the blue side poorly. Comparing typical scores, most of them actually work fine on blue; "food cost of played birds" is the real problem, since players usually max it in round 1.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2022.
Yes — any combination of goals, bonus cards and bird cards can be used, and the expansion's birds also work as a deck on their own. Wingspan Asia's duet goal tiles are the only exception (duet mode only). With the Automa, take base values from the base cards for base tiles and from the expansion cards for expansion tiles.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2022.
Each activation, choose a player and cache one rodent per bird in their tableau that has the predator icon in front of its power. The scavengers only have the icon inside their text, so they don't count themselves (nor do magpies), and it counts predator birds, not successful hunts.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2022.
Your copying bird — unlike a repeat power, a copy power takes the other bird's power for itself. If your copier is the rightmost bird in its habitat it may move, even into a habitat it couldn't normally be played in. The other player's bird is unaffected.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2022.
Dice showing the invertebrate/seed face count as that food, so you take those too. If the feeder qualifies for a reroll before you start, you may reset it and take whatever matching dice come up. Once you've taken any, the power is complete — no rerolling for more, and if the feeder empties and refills, those dice aren't part of the power.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2021.
Yes — take every die, inside and outside the feeder, and roll them all back in.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2024.
The invertebrate die you take is removed from the feeder as usual (an invertebrate/seed face works). If none shows after the reset, you gain nothing — it's the luck of the roll.
No to both. You remove any one die from the feeder without gaining it, then gain a seed from the supply. Because that seed doesn't come from the feeder, the reroll rule doesn't apply.
Only when another player takes the gain food (forest) action — not on every food gain. The Oriole gains its food at the end of that player's turn. If you roll the feeder for the Tree Sparrow and find no seed, the power is still used until after your next turn (you may reroll again only if the new dice all match).
Yes — they trigger whenever another player tucks a card for any reason; the flocking icon only means these birds themselves tuck. Chains stop quickly, though: your pink birds can't respond during your own turn. Snow Bunting draws from the tray before it is refilled, and needs a card from your hand to tuck before it can draw.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2020.
Keep the cards drawn by the power apart from your hand. You can't use them that turn — no tucking, discarding or spending them. When your turn ends, choose one of them to keep and throw away the others; that discard covers only the cards the power drew, never your existing hand.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2020.
Brown, as printed — the card is right, and appendix wording that groups it with round-end powers is misleading. You may tuck any number of cards up to the chosen player's count. Against the Automa it effectively does nothing, because the rule letting Automa cubes count applies only to teal powers.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2020.
You draw a bonus card, then choose exactly one of: 1 food from the birdfeeder, 1 egg on any bird, or 1 bird card.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2020.
When activated — it's a brown power usable each time you activate the forest. German first-print cards that say "when played" are a misprint, and replacements were only needed for the German edition.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2020.
The cards come from your hand, one behind each of up to three wetland birds you choose, and the Swan itself is a valid target. Play it as printed: without the flocking icon it doesn't count as a flocking bird, even though future printings are meant to add the icon.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2020.
Ethologist: at game end choose one habitat and score 2 points per different power color among its birds, with no power (white) counting as a color — up to 8 points. Behaviorist scores per column (the three slots stacked across habitats) whose birds show three different power colors.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2022.
For steal powers, take the food from the supply instead, and you may use them only if the Automa has at least one cube on the current round's goal (nothing is removed, so two steal birds can both use it). For teal powers that compare or choose another player, the Automa has as many of the checked items as it has cubes on the current round goal tile.
As an alternative: either give the Automa one of the two Automa-only cards or draw it a normal bonus card as in the base rules — don't shuffle them into the bonus deck. When the Automa takes tray birds with them, it keeps one (or, with Autwitcher, up to two birds worth 3 or 4 points, highest first) and discards the other matches. Breeding Manager and Backyard Birder still can't be used by the Automa.
No — only the dice you roll from outside the feeder count when checking for a rodent.
Only one or two replies address this and there is no official ruling, so treat it as the best available reading.
Probably yes, if your copy shows the predator icon. Later printings carry the icon, and a popular card database describes its absence on early cards as an omission corrected in 2019. A 2020 forum note argued from an older Stonemaier comment that no icon was intended. No newer official ruling settles it.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2020.
No. The European Expansion rulebook listed honey as a Photographer color, and Stonemaier first confirmed it in early 2020, but the Oceania rulebook then corrected this: honey was included by mistake and doesn't count.
Nectar is wild when paying a bird's food cost, for powers and mat bonuses that take "any food," and any wild food icon you gain can be taken as nectar (Fish Crow, the ravens). It is not wild when a bird power names a specific food — discarding a seed to tuck needs a seed. Nectar also can't be one of the two inputs of a 2-for-1 trade (it's already wild), though you can pay 2 other foods in place of a nectar cost.
On the spent-nectar space of the habitat where you spent it: the habitat the bird is played into, the habitat of the bird whose power you paid (discarding food for a power counts as spending it), or the row whose mat bonus you used. Nectar an opponent discards in response to your bird's power goes to that bird's habitat. Every nectar spent counts.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2020.
No — cached nectar stays on the bird as an ordinary 1-point cached food and never goes to the spent-nectar space, so it doesn't count toward nectar majorities.
Several experienced players agree on this; there is no official ruling.
No — only nectar you actually spend is placed there. Trading two foods for one doesn't create nectar, and the 2-for-1 trade can't pay for mat bonuses at all; it's only for playing birds.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2021.
In each habitat, most spent nectar scores 5 and second most 2, at any player count, and you need at least one nectar there to place. Ties work like green goal ties: two tied for first split 5+2 and get 3 each, with nobody else scoring; two tied for second split 2+0 and get 1 each.
Follow the reference tile, not older rulebook text where they differ: teal round-end powers first, then discard unused nectar from your supply, then score the round's goal, remove cubes and refresh the tray. In round 4, yellow game-end powers resolve after all of that, and then final scoring (including bonus cards) is done.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2020.
Not your leftover nectar — it's discarded before game-end powers resolve, so Australian Raven can't cache it and you can't spend it on a bird played by a game-end power (pay 2-for-1 instead). Nectar you gain during game-end resolution, such as from a Red Wattlebird or Masked Lapwing played then, stays and can be used for other game-end powers or the tiebreaker. Round-end powers, which come first, can still use nectar (e.g. Common Starling).
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2020.
Its "when played" and game-end powers can be used (once each), including chains of birds that play further birds. Its round-end power can't, because the round-end phase has already passed. A full habitat still can't take a sixth bird (Magpie-lark).
No — egg limits always apply unless a power explicitly says otherwise.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2025.
The options on each space are used in the order printed. The paid reset comes before you take any food, so you can't pick some dice and then pay to reset, and once you've used the free all-same-face reroll you can't go back and pay. You may pay to reset even when a free reroll would be possible. The reset rerolls all five dice, and the card-for-food extra comes after you take your food.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2022.
Each can be used once per action. As with the base mat, take the basic reward first, then decide whether to pay for the extra.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2020.
Yes. The Oceania mats work with the base game and European Expansion (just ignore the nectar symbols), the original mats work with Oceania, and Oceania needs only the base game; combine any expansions you like. Keep the original mats, though — later expansions are designed mainly around them. The Oceania dice are official only together with the nectar-majority scoring; using them without it is a house rule.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2021.
Yes — about 80% of Oceania birds don't use nectar. Nectar birds can stay in the deck and be discarded when drawn, and the Oceania bonus cards and goals work without nectar.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2021.
That round has no goal, so you keep the cube you'd have placed and get an extra turn in each remaining round. Drawn for round 4, it simply means no goal that round.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2025.
Yes — you lose the item either way, the receiver may decline it (it goes back to the supply, not to you), and you still get the rest of the power. Brolga is similar: the chosen player may decline the egg (or be unable to lay it), and you still draw your 2 cards.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2021.
Yes — the tuck isn't conditional. You tuck 2 cards from the deck whether or not they gain a seed.
Whenever another player gains nectar from any source — the forest, a gift from Red-winged Parrot, stealing with Black-headed Gull — as long as it isn't during the Drongo owner's own turn. Nectar handed out on your own turn (your Silvereye or Blue-throat) can't trigger your own Drongo.
The copied power acts as your bird's own power for that turn: left and right are relative to you, a copied movement power moves your copier (into any habitat), and seed cached via a copied Coal Tit can be spent only until the turn ends. A Northern Mockingbird repeating your Lyrebird is a new activation and may copy a different bird. Against the Automa, copy a brown power from a bird on the tray.
It replaces a forest bird, so you can play it even into a full forest, and you pay no egg cost. The discarded bird's eggs, cached food and tucked cards are all discarded with it. If the replaced bird was sideways, the Cassowary takes its sideways position.
Both powers resolve as the Parakeet is placed, so to copy Cassowary the Parakeet must be played in the forest, replacing a forest bird (with no egg cost); it copies only the power, so it lays eggs up to its own limit of 2, not 4. Copying Reed Warbler's 1-egg discount is legal, but in the first column the discount does nothing — a discount isn't laying an egg.
Yes to both. The normal reroll rule applies despite "if there is one," and when it gains food it's a successful predator that can trigger other players' pink predator powers. An earlier pink power can change the feeder in your favor, since you decide whether to use yours when it resolves.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2020.
When activated, as printed on the card — the rulebook's listing as a "when played" power is an error. It tucks from the tray, so with an empty tray there's nothing to tuck.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2020.
You draw five cards from the deck, count the fish icons in their food costs, and discard those same five cards; your hand isn't involved. Each fish icon counts (a bird with two counts twice), but wild food icons don't.
Draw 1 bonus card, then decide how many extra to draw and pay all that food up front. Afterwards keep only one bonus card out of everything the power drew, including the first.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2021.
No — you reset or refill the tray once before drawing. If no matching card appears, you don't draw.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2020.
Judge the beak with the card upright. Forward-facing birds such as Kakapo count for neither direction, but Wrybill, though facing forward, has its bill pointing left and counts for the left goal.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2024.
Add every matching icon in the costs of your played birds; a bird needn't show both foods, a cost with two fish counts twice, and an either/or cost counts once. Wild icons don't count, and count-double birds aren't doubled for these goals.
It's wild: it counts as whatever wingspan a power, goal or bonus card needs, and it fits any position in a wingspan sequence.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2020.
Each one scores a single ascending or descending wingspan sequence in its habitat. Equal wingspans keep a sequence going and a * wingspan fits anywhere, so 1-2-2-3-3 is a sequence of 5.
For Mechanical Engineer (sets of nests), a sideways bird is still one bird with one nest. For Site Selection Expert (by column), a sideways bird is in both columns and its nest can count in each, and a star nest can be a different type in each column — just not toward two sets in the same column.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2022.
Rosella counts (rose is a color word). Rainbow, many-colored and honey are not on the color list, so those birds don't count, and the "toe" in Mistletoebird isn't the body part.
Shuffle the new RAOUtoma card into the Automa deck when playing with nectar — having more cards than turns is deliberate. The Automa keeps its nectar between rounds and loses it only when its card shows the remove-cube symbol. Without nectar, RAOUtoma adds nothing, and for the No Goal tile give the Automa 3, 4 or 5 eggs by difficulty.
In the Oceania Automa variant the Automa collects hoard tokens (represented with food tokens) whenever another player's power would give it something — for example the egg from Brolga or a fruit from Many-colored Fruit-Dove — while you still get your own part of the power.
The Automa designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2023.
Yes — you control the whole power and the Automa is only passively involved, so you may give it the food and still lay your eggs. Unless you play with Automa's Hoard (or Cache), the Automa gains nothing from it.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2026.
Yes — for anything that counts birds, a hummingbird on your mat is a bird in your preserve and in that habitat. Conversely, an empty hummingbird space counts as an empty space in that habitat, e.g. for Southern Lapwing, Great Crested Grebe or Wilson's Storm-Petrel.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2026.
Every hummingbird counts as smaller than any wingspan threshold and smaller than every other bird on your mat — a deliberate simplification, even though a few real hummingbirds outsize some Wingspan birds. On wingspan-sequence bonus cards a hummingbird can therefore start an ascending run, while a * wingspan still fits anywhere.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2026.
No — when your row action reaches the hummingbird space you must take the hummingbird action; the rule doesn't say "may." A brown power that grants a hummingbird action (like Verdin) can use any habitat unless it names one.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2026.
Any of the visible top cards — usually five are showing — not the buried ones; the rulebook's "the topmost" means "a topmost." The rules don't say whether you may look at lower cards, and many groups allow it since they went in face up.
Several experienced players agree on this; there is no official ruling.
No — it covers only the current turn. You can't attract the hummingbird you returned earlier that turn, but a different one is fine, and one you returned on an earlier turn can come back later. You also don't have to put a returned hummingbird into an empty garden space.
Several experienced players agree on this; there is no official ruling.
Like the bird tray: empty garden spaces refill at the end of your turn, and at round end all garden hummingbirds are discarded and replaced. Hummingbird track points are scored once, at game end; hummingbird end-of-round goals score at round end like any goal, and you qualify by having advanced at least one step on the track shown.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2026.
No — the designer confirmed the setup hummingbird gives no bonus.
Several experienced players agree on this; there is no official ruling.
No — attracting a hummingbird isn't playing a bird. Likewise Toco Toucan's "activate brown powers in this row" doesn't trigger the hummingbird action, which isn't a brown power.
Several experienced players agree on this; there is no official ruling.
Only the track of the topmost card it covered or of the hummingbird being returned — icons deeper in the stack don't count.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2026.
Without hummingbirds, yes — remove nothing; set aside any hummingbird-related goal, bonus card or bird (about 20 birds) when drawn and draw another. Without the base game, no — the core game is required, and Stonemaier recommends shuffling the Americas birds into the base deck.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2026.
Only if you're also playing Oceania. Without it, use the standard dice and the other overlay side; nectar still enters through some hummingbirds, and wild food powers such as the ravens may give nectar too. The two sides of each hummingbird tracker differ only in art.
Several experienced players agree on this; there is no official ruling.
After — the Americas rules put game-end powers after all of round 4's end-of-round steps, including removing cubes and refreshing the tray, matching the reference tiles. Some older Oceania and Asia rulebook text lists a different order.
Several experienced players agree on this; there is no official ruling.
Unlike other migrating birds, it takes your cube with it: move the woodpecker and the cube to the new habitat, then keep moving the cube left from where it landed, activating the birds you pass there.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2026.
Yes — you choose egg or card separately for each empty forest slot (an empty hummingbird space counts), so you can mix them.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2026.
After they finish drawing for the habitat action, including any optional trade or reset, and before the brown powers in that row activate — the same timing as other pink powers triggered by a habitat action, unless they say "end of turn."
Several experienced players agree on this; there is no official ruling.
No — those powers trigger only when a player chooses the lay eggs action. A bird moving into the grassland during another action doesn't count.
With hummingbirds in play the Automa can have up to 6 birds for habitat goals, and on hummingbird track goals her value (base value plus tokens on the goal tile) caps at 8. Charm Champion is optional; when used, she takes the highest tray bird with "hummingbird" in its name (advancing her track), else the highest bird of the listed value, else a face-down card.
When the Automa activates all pink powers, treat her as having reset the feeder without actually resetting it, then check the feeder as it stands after her main action: if the required food is showing, gain one from the supply; otherwise nothing. The Americas Automa rule for checking another player's food (using the feeder dice) also makes Marsh Tit and Western House Martin usable solo.
No — refilling only fills empty slots, so the power does something only if a tray card was taken earlier that turn. Take from the tray first to use it.
Several experienced players agree on this; there is no official ruling.
Yes — you may still tuck, just as tuck-then-lay powers let you tuck when the egg can't be laid.
Only one or two replies address this and there is no official ruling, so treat it as the best available reading.
No — you either tuck a card from your hand, or discard a tucked card and draw 3; the draw comes only with the discard option.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2025.
No — you may spend the Kiwi's egg any time you could spend an egg, but the egg cost is paid before the food cost. Once that egg is spent to play a bird, the invertebrates cached on the Kiwi are no longer available for that bird's food.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2026.
Free means no food and no eggs. Like any bird played during a game-end power, the new bird may use its "when played" and "game end" powers; the reminder was left off the card for space and is on the pack's rules card.
Stonemaier Games answered this directly on BGG in 2025.
Draw as many as the discard pile has, then carry on with the power — some or all players may get fewer cards than usual.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2025.
Right. Promo birds whose beaks point neither way, or both ways, are listed explicitly on the pack's rules cards.
Yes — you discard one of the two new bonus cards only when its habitat holds more than one bird.
Paradise Shelduck checks all adjacent birds: if any has an egg you draw a card, otherwise you lay an egg on the Shelduck. Blue Duck resets the birdfeeder first and then checks for a rodent.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2026.
No — caching food from your supply is the prerequisite; if you don't cache, you don't gain the die at the end of the other player's turn. In Wingspan, "do X, then Y" always makes X a requirement for Y.
No to both. The score only tells you how many eggs to lay on the Finch, up to its limit of 3; it isn't added to your points at game end.
A Wingspan designer ruled on this directly on BGG in 2025.
Yes — as long as you gain at least one food from the power, each other player may gain either of the two listed foods from the supply.
Stonemaier ruled in 2021 that a star nest always counts as any nest type for bird powers, which settles this card.
Yes — star nests match any nest type for powers, so you may lay on a star-nest bird after discarding, say, a platform bird, and discarding a star-nest bird lets you match any nest.
Pick any die, inside or outside the birdfeeder, and roll it; afterwards that die stays outside the feeder until the feeder is reset.