Birds worth knowing
How to use this page mid-game. Find the bird, read the tier, read the line beside it. Two conditions sit under every row: base game at two players, and turns left to spend. The reasoning is in Judging any bird. A bird missing here isn’t bad, it’s ordinary, and cheap ordinary birds played early are most of how good players win.
The Power 4
Section titled “The Power 4”Each breaks the board’s own exchange rate (1 card, 1 food and 1 egg are all worth about a point), turning one egg into two of something better every time you take that row’s action.
| Tier | Bird | Stats | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| S | Common Raven | 5 VP · 2 eggs · 1 rodent + 2 wild · all habitats | Egg to 2 wild food, in whichever row is already your best |
| S | Chihuahuan Raven | 4 VP · 3 eggs · 1 rodent + 2 wild · grassland | Same power, extra egg slot, and it lives where you lay |
| S | Killdeer | 1 VP · 3 eggs · 1 invertebrate or seed · grassland/wetland | Egg to 2 cards for one food. Cheapest of the four |
| S | Franklin’s Gull | 3 VP · 2 eggs · 1 fish + 1 wild · star nest | Egg to 2 cards. Belongs at the right end of a row of tuckers |
Not fan noise: Stonemaier’s own Oceania rulebook offers to remove both ravens if you find them too strong, competitive play restricts all four before round 2, and a model of the core set (R² = 0.973) ranks them among its largest negative residuals, priced below their own stats. The catch is the whole catch: Killdeer on your last turn is worth 1 point. Early or never.
Cheap engine starters
Section titled “Cheap engine starters”Round 1 is about 30% of every activation you get. The free column-1 slots go here.
| Tier | Bird | Stats | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | Mourning Dove | 0 VP · 5 eggs · 1 food · all habitats | Lays on itself forever. Prints 0, finishes worth 5 |
| A | Red-Winged Blackbird | 2 VP · 3 eggs · 1 food | Tuck and lay: 2 points an activation, the best rate in the game |
| A | Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher | 1 VP · 3 eggs · 1 food | A free invertebrate every forest turn. The classic raven feeder |
| A | American Crow | 4 VP · 2 eggs · 1 food · all habitats | Raven-lite at a third of the price |
| B | Ruddy Duck | 0 VP · 5 eggs · 1 food | The Dove’s shape, for cards. Dead weight drawn late |
Egg banks
Section titled “Egg banks”Only 17 of the 170 core birds hold 5 or 6 eggs. Every filled slot is a point, and capacity caps your whole round 4.
| Tier | Bird | Stats | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| S | House Finch | 3 VP · 6 eggs · 2 food · all habitats | Tucks, draws, holds six, goes anywhere |
| A | Wild Turkey | 8 VP · 5 eggs · 3 food | 13 combined, the highest in the core set |
| A | Northern Bobwhite | 5 VP · 6 eggs · 3 food | Lays on itself, so the capacity fills free |
| A | King Rail | 4 VP · 6 eggs | Swaps your bonus card on the way down |
| B | Bushtit | 2 VP · 5 eggs · 2 food · star nest | Tuck and lay, and star nests count for every nest goal |
Tuck engines and card draw
Section titled “Tuck engines and card draw”Tucked cards are 1 VP each with no cap, the structural edge over eggs. The canonical engine is a wetland row of tuck-and-draw birds with a drawer at the right end: 3-4 points plus cards an action.
| Tier | Bird | Stats | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | Sandhill Crane | 5 VP · 1 egg · 3 food | Discard 1 food, tuck 2 from the deck. No hand cost |
| B | American Coot · Black-Bellied Whistling Duck | 3 / 2 VP · 5 eggs · 2 food | Tuck engines with a reservoir attached |
| B | Pied-Billed Grebe · Mallard · Common Yellowthroat | 0-1 VP · 4 eggs · 1 food | One-food drawers banking four points while they work |
| B | Fish Crow | 6 VP · 2 food · all habitats | Egg to 1 food: the consolation prize when the ravens are gone |
The pinks that fire at two players
Section titled “The pinks that fire at two players”A pink triggers at most once between your turns, and at two players one opponent turn fills that gap. Expect 3-7 firings a game against 12-18 at a full table, so the trigger is everything.
| Tier | Bird | VP / eggs / food | Trigger |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | American Avocet | 6 / 2 / 3 | He lays eggs: lay on a ground nest. Near-universal in round 4 |
| A | Barrow’s Goldeneye | 5 / 4 / 3 | He lays eggs: lay on a cavity nest |
| A | Yellow-Billed Cuckoo | 5 / 2 / 3 | He lays eggs: lay on a bowl nest |
| B | Bronzed Cowbird | 5 / 0 / 2 | Bowl nests. Zero capacity itself, being a brood parasite |
| B | Brown-Headed Cowbird | 3 / 0 / 1 | Bowl nests, and cheap |
| C | Belted Kingfisher · Horned Lark | 4/4/2 · 5/4/2 | He plays a wetland or grassland bird, which he may simply not |
Worth pocketing: your pinks still fire on his final turns, after your own last action.
Points and multipliers
Section titled “Points and multipliers”| Tier | Bird | Stats | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | Blue-Winged · Hooded Warbler | 8 VP · 2 eggs / 7 VP · 3 eggs · 2 food · no power | Ten combined for two food, and neither cares what round it is |
| A | Northern Mockingbird | 2 VP · 4 eggs · 2 food · all habitats | Repeats a brown power. Beside a raven, two raven activations a turn |
| B | Osprey · Spotted Sandpiper · Wilson’s Snipe · Clark’s Grebe | 5 VP · 2 eggs · 1 food | Seven points for one food. Osprey’s gain is shared, so play the print |
| B | Red-Eyed Vireo · Downy Woodpecker · House Wren | when played | “Play a second bird” refunds a turn, the scarcest thing you own |
A tier is a prior; the round is the tiebreaker. Before round 3 take the engine, after it take the points. The same card is an S and a C four turns apart.
Next: Trap birds, the shapes that look like this page and aren’t. Then Bonus card tiers.