The cheat sheet

Keep this page open on your phone. Everything here is explained somewhere in the guide; this is the version you can use mid-turn.

Setup

Keep 2 birds + 3 food from your starting five (1 bird + 4 food if the hand is weak). Keep the bird you can play on turn 1, not the bird you love.
Read all four round goals before your first turn. They’re your scoring calendar for the whole game.
Pick the bonus card whose birds you’d want anyway. A bonus that fights your hand is a bonus you won’t score.

Cheap birds early. Two 3-point birds that power your engine beat one 8-pointer that doesn’t, every time.
Birds work in pairs. The 2nd and 4th bird in a row are where the row’s action upgrades. One lonely bird in a habitat improves nothing.
Go deep, not wide. Three birds in one row beats one bird in each of three rows. Spreading thin is the classic first-game leak.
Don’t hoard food or cards. Anything sitting in your supply at game end is a turn you wasted. Collect what you’ll spend, spend what you collect.

Don’t race, never take a zero. Winning a goal is +3 over second place. Having zero of the goal item scores nothing at all. Get your one or two, then let the goal go unless it’s cheap to win.

When in doubt, lay eggs. A built grassland lays 4 a turn, a point apiece. That’s the bar every other action has to beat.
A round-4 bird must beat the eggs it cost. Face points, minus the egg cost of its column, versus one lay action. Say the number out loud; if you can’t beat it, lay.
Spend everything. Leftover food breaks ties but winners finish light. Convert, lay, tuck; end the game empty-handed.

Discount pink powers hard (they barely fire with one opponent), and don’t leave the birdfeeder all-same-face on your last food take; that’s a free reroll gift-wrapped for him.

If you remember one line: build for two rounds, then lay eggs like it’s your job. It is.