New Game: Birds of a Feather

I love games that are thick with theme. The theme allows you to immerse yourself into the world that the game is depicting. When a new game comes along with a unique theme, that catches my attention. When the game is both competitive and fun, that keeps my attention. Birds of a Feather did that at DunDraCon last weekend. Enough so that I bought my own copy and then brought it to work to play it with my nascent game group there.


In Birds of a Feather the players are bird watchers who are trying to "spot" different birds in various habitats. The players are each dealt a hand of cards (based on the number of players in the game). Each player then chooses one card to play face down on the table. When everyone has played their cards, all of the cards are turned face up and scored. Each player can score all of the cards on the table that are from the same habitat as the one that he or she just played. Then the cards are moved into an inner ring. Each player plays another card (face down) in the outer ring. When the cards are turned face up each player can score all of the cards on the table from the habitat that they played on the second or subsequent card. After this turn, (and each subsequent turn) the cards in the inner ring are removed from the game and the cards in the outer ring are moved to the inner ring. The game is played until each player has one card left. That last card is discarded. Add up the scores and the player with the highest score wins.

While this game comes with score sheets and provides a resource for replacing score sheets when the ones that came with the game run out, the designer has also provided a free scoring application available for download from the Google Play Store and from iTunes. The app is rock solid and easy to use. It makes the scoring process for each player quick and easy. The only downside is that each player needs to download the app on their own phone. It doesn't score the whole table. That is a minor nit to pick.


The artwork on this game is lovely. I was initially taught this game by the game designer and he explained that his brother did the art work. This game is somewhat educational in that you learn what birds live in which habitats. It would be a great game to play with children and, because it plays up to seven players, you can play it with a good sized group of kids or adults. It's simple to teach and simple to learn. I will definitely be bringing this to both gamer and non-gamer gatherings alike.