Bonus card tiers
Bonus cards average 10 points a game, 11.7 for the winner, and 10-12 for players who plan them. At two players that’s most of a winning margin. Read the row for a card’s pool and its ceiling, then decide once whether you’re building for it. The pool is how many of the 170 core birds qualify; the decision itself lives in the opening.
| Tier | Card | Pool | The one-liner |
|---|---|---|---|
| S | Falconer | 22 (13%) | 2 VP per predator, no cap. A predator row turns it into 10-12 |
| S | Rodentologist | 25 (15%) | 2 per rodent-eater, no cap |
| S | Bird Counter | 25 (15%) | 2 per tucking power, and a tuck engine is what you wanted anyway |
| S | Omnivore Expert | 28 (17%) | 2 per bird with a wild in its cost. Widest of the uncapped six |
| S | Historian | 19 (11%) | 2 per name with an apostrophe. Narrow, but six is 12 points |
| S | Food Web Expert | 16 (9%) | 2 per invertebrate-only bird. Smallest pool in the set, same missing ceiling |
| A | Oologist | birds holding an egg | 3 points at 7-8 birds, 6 at 9. Nearly free if you’re laying at all |
| A | Ecologist | your emptiest habitat | 2 per bird there, uncapped. 4-6 points for simply spreading out |
| A | Fishery Manager | 30 (18%) | 8 at four fish-eaters, which are wetland birds you’d play regardless |
| A | Prairie Manager | 31 (18%) | 8 at four grassland-only birds, and grassland is where you live |
| A | Forester | 40 (24%) | 8 at five forest-only birds. Widest of the three 8-point tops |
| B | Enclosure / Nest Box / Platform Builder · Wildlife Gardener | 54 each (32%) | 4 at four, 7 at six. Star nests count toward all four cards |
| B | Wetland Scientist | 45 (27%) | 3 at three, 7 at five |
| B | Photographer | 58 (34%) | 3 at four, 7 at six, and the colour is right there in the name |
| B | Anatomist · Cartographer · Viticulturalist | 39 / 37 / 37 (22-23%) | 3 at two birds, 7 at four. Cheap to start, real to finish |
| C | Large Bird Specialist | 57 (34%) | 6 at six birds over 65 cm, and wingspan is invisible until you draw |
| C | Passerine Specialist | 60 (35%) | Same 6-point cap, same blind-measurement problem |
| F | Bird Feeder | 75 (44%) | The big pool hides the most restrictive threshold in the set: 8 seed-eaters on a 10-bird board |
| F | Backyard Birder | 71 (42%) | Pays 6 for a pile of sub-4-point birds, while bird points are 45% of your score |
| F | Visionary Leader | cards in hand | The average player finishes with 1.7. Eight means you drew and never played |
What actually separates them
Section titled “What actually separates them”Difficulty barely does: across the threshold cards, the birds you must see to reach the top tier land between 17 and 22 almost uniformly. Two other things do the work.
The size of the ceiling. Every threshold card caps at 6, 7 or 8, and only three reach 8: Fishery Manager, Prairie Manager and Forester. The six uncapped cards have no ceiling at all, so six qualifying birds is 12 points, more than any threshold card can pay. The trade: unbuilt, they pay 3 or 4.
Whether the qualifying birds are ones you wanted anyway. This is the whole question. Fish-eaters are strong wetland birds, so Fishery Manager is close to free. Birds worth under 4 points are birds you’d rather not play, so Backyard Birder charges you real points to collect it.
Keep or toss at setup
Section titled “Keep or toss at setup”You see two and keep one, and the rulebook explicitly lets you read your bonus cards while choosing birds, and vice versa. Use it.
- Read both cards and all four goal tiles before you discard anything.
- Choose the bonus card last, then let it break ties all game. It should never pick your engine.
- Prefer the wider pool unless your hand already supports the narrow one. A mid-tier card you build toward beats a top-tier card you ignore: 8-13 points built against 3-5 ignored, often the whole two-player margin.
- Stuck between two bad ones? Take the wider pool and price it at 3 points, not 8.
- Commit by the end of round 2 or not at all. Threshold cards want 4 to 8 specific birds and you’ll only play about ten.
Draft toward two
Section titled “Draft toward two”Strong players finish holding 2.2 bonus cards worth 10-12 points combined, which is the real target, not 5 from one card drafted blind. Twelve core birds redraw or add one: California Condor at zero food, King Rail, Atlantic Puffin, Spotted Owl, Bell’s Vireo, Whooping Crane. A second card chosen in round 3, against a board you can already see, beats the one you took blind at setup. They’re also the best catch-up mechanism in the game, scoring off the board you already have. The payoff curve is steep: players scoring nothing here win 34% of their games, those scoring 23 or more win 75%.
Price every bonus card at 3 points until you decide to build for it. The difference between 3 and 12 is a choice you make in round 2, not a card you were dealt at setup.
Next: The setup choice, where this decision actually gets made.