Author’s Note: the game Wingspan has been covered in many reviews. This article assumes that you have a good (if basic) understanding of how the game works and how it is played. If you need a primer on the game, Meeple Mountain has you covered! You can check out Logan Giannini’s review of Wingspan, or Mark Iradian’s review of Wingspan, or Tom Franklin’s review of Wingspan Digital; or perhaps my review of Wingspan: Asia (the stand-alone, two-player implementation).
Introduction
On 25 October 2025, I held a game day at my house. My wife and four of our friends got together to play games starting at about 8:00 am and going on until well after 9:00 pm. (with snacks and lunch in there). The first game played was New York 1901, a four-player game because two of our friends had not arrived yet (they had a drive of several hours to get to us). Once the group of six was together, we played a game of Cascadia with the Landmarks expansion (a wonderful experience). It was as we were finishing up that game that the doorbell rang and the package I had been expecting to arrive that day was dropped off in front of my door.
That package was from Stonemaier Games. In it was my recent order of the two new Tokaido products (the expansions and Tokaido Duo), the new game (Origin Story), and all six of the Wingspan Fan-designed card packs: Additional Asian Avians, Birds of Canada, Birds of Continental Europe, Birds of New Zealand, Birds of the U.S.A., and British Birds. Each pack has 25 new birds designed by fans, then refined by Jamey Stegmaier and Elizabeth Hargrave. All but two of the group that night are huge fans of Wingspan, one has neutral feelings about the game, and one had never played the game before. A good mix.
We set up the game for six players (not using the flocking rules), used the updated game boards to include nectar in the game, did a brief teach, and decided to use nothing but the 150 new bird cards. None of the original cards, none of the bird cards from the various expansions, just the fan-designed birds to ensure we were getting new surprises on every turn.
This was easily the best time any of us had ever had playing this wonderful game!
Variations on the Themes
Each card in each of these sets has abilities that are simultaneously familiar while having twists that make each of them fun and surprisingly interactive. So many birds have When Activated abilities that reset the birdfeeder, or check the food supplies of all the other players, or what-have-you that each player at our table was constantly attentive to everyone’s turns. Sure, some of this can be attributed to the fact that the birds were new and different and we all wanted to know what each of them did, but we were also on alert for abilities that did the things which we have grown used to (e.g., giving eggs, giving or caching food, giving or tucking cards, and so on) but in surprising new ways. Examples include:
- An American bird that, when activated, allows you to draw and discard a bird from the deck… if that card had an invertebrate in its cost, you gain one from the supply, then cache one on that bird from the supply.
- An Asian bird that, when played, lets you draw and discard three new bonus cards… but lets the player score one of them immediately by caching a number of seeds on the card equal to the number of points that card would give them.
- A British bird that, at game’s end, lets you lay one egg on each bird you have in play that has a fruit in its cost (including the bird with the ability).
- A Canadian bird that, when played, lets you play another bird in the same habitat… but that second bird comes from the tray, not your hand.
- A European bird that, when played, lets you move the action cube to the start of the habitat where the bird resides and take the entire action (e.g., Gain Food, Gain Eggs, or Gain Cards) including activating all brown powers along the way.
- A New Zealand bird that, when played, lets you draw two new bonus cards… then (starting with you), each player gives one of their bonus cards to the player on their left.
Note: all the birds listed above can be seen on the Stonemaier website, on the page where this set of promo cards was announced. In other words, I am doing my best to minimize spoilers for the many, many surprises you will find in these amazing sets. That includes images.
Explanations and Clarifications
Each set includes 25 new bird cards and a set of 2-3 cards with rules explanations and clarifications. These are well done, easy to use, and provide insight into the way these birds work (i.e., how the bird might work for round-end goals that depend upon the direction the beak is going, especially when the illustration has two birds shown facing in opposite directions).
One of the more interesting things where we were not really able to figure out how to handle it, was for birds that show two or more optional methods of paying for the card, where one of the options was a nectar. Since nectar is a wildcard resource, if a card lists that it can be paid for with a fruit or a nectar, what exactly does that mean? After all, any bird that can be paid for with a fruit can be paid for with a nectar. We ruled that this means that if the game includes nectar, then the cost must be nectar; if the game does not include nectar, then the other cost(s) are available to you. I will be reaching out to Stonemaier Games for an official ruling soon.
Caching and Tucking and Hunting, Oh My!
We were playing a large game (six players). Keep that in mind when I tell you these next points.
- On at least a half-dozen occasions, one of the players saw a new card, read it, and nearly fell out of their chair laughing at the implications of that card in play.
- Given the number of cards that will cause you to draw (or draw and discard) cards from the deck, we had to reshuffle the discard pile twice by game’s end.
- Many of the new Once Between Turns cards had abilities that were truly inspired (i.e., drawing a card when another player plays a bird that requires 3 food).
- Not only are there cards that let you draw and interact with the bird or bonus card decks, there are cards that let you draw and interact with those decks’ discard piles
- The card that we would all stop and watch the most was a card that, when activated, allowed you to tuck a card with a When Activated ability on it, and immediately activate the tucked card.
- One player had three birds that each had 8+ food cached on them.
- Two players had birds with over a dozen cards tucked under them.
- The table had a total of six or seven hunting birds where none of them used the same hunting mechanic.
- All six players scored over 100 points.
Final Thoughts
I am so glad we got to play this game and play it this way. Limiting ourselves to these 150 cards was perfect. That said, would I recommend limiting yourself to just these six packs of birds? Sure, have a go at it. These cards are amazingly fun to play! But this is a one-time thing. It was all spice and no sugar; all desert and no entre. I would say over 75% of these birds had abilities where I had cards in the rest of my collection that I would have loved to have had in play in order to exploit some synergies. They are designed, I believe, to add variety to the base and the expansions, not replace them. As a one-time thing, I will admit, it was amazing! The core of my group plays this game a lot (on average, 3-5 times per month with 4-5 players). This was the most fun any of us has ever had playing Wingspan. I certainly hope that Elizabeth Hargrave and Jamey Stegmaier took notes and plan to crib from the variations on the abilities in these cards as they design the remaining upcoming sets.
We will include these birds in all of our over-the-table plays. We will keep the original birds and the expansion birds in the mix as well. After all, each is a module designed to be incorporated into the base and/or various expansions; one at a time, all at once, or however you want to use them. Variety, as they say, is the spice of life!
