How to Play Wingspan: Setup, Turns, Scoring
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Wingspan at a glance
- Players
- 1–5
- Play time
- 40–70 min
- Age
- 10+
- Complexity
- Medium
- Mode
- Competitive
- Publisher · Year
- Stonemaier Games · 2019
- Works for
- 1 player, 2 players
- Less suited to
- Under 10
Wingspan is a bird-collecting card game for 1 to 5 players, ages 10 and up. A game takes 40 to 70 minutes. Over 4 rounds you play birds into 3 habitats on your mat, and every new bird makes one of your actions stronger. The most points after round 4 wins.
The rules fit on a few pages, but the first game feels busy because so many small rewards stack up. This guide follows the Stonemaier Games rulebook. It covers setup, the 4 actions, the shrinking rounds and a full final score.
What's in the box and how do you set up?
The box holds 170 bird cards, 26 bonus cards, 103 food tokens, 75 eggs and 5 food dice with a birdfeeder dice tower. Each player gets a mat and 8 action cubes in one color.
Setup takes about 5 minutes:
- Shuffle the bird cards. Put 3 face up in the bird tray.
- Roll the 5 dice into the birdfeeder.
- Put 4 random goal tiles on the goal board, one for each round.
- Deal each player 5 bird cards, 2 bonus cards and 5 food tokens, one of each food type.
- Keep up to 5 birds. For every bird you keep, discard 1 food token. Then keep 1 of your 2 bonus cards.
So a player who keeps 3 birds also keeps 2 food tokens. A random player takes the first player token.
What can you do on a turn?
On your turn you place 1 action cube and take 1 of 4 actions. Three of them belong to the 3 rows of your mat.
| Action | Where | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Play a bird | Any habitat the card allows | The bird, after you pay its food and egg cost |
| Gain food | Forest row | Food dice from the birdfeeder |
| Lay eggs | Grassland row | Eggs on birds that have room in their nests |
| Draw bird cards | Wetland row | Cards from the tray or the top of the deck |
To play a bird, pay the food shown on its card and put it in the leftmost empty space of that habitat. The 1st column costs no eggs. Columns 2 and 3 cost 1 egg, and columns 4 and 5 cost 2 eggs.
For the other 3 actions, put your cube on the leftmost open space of that row. Take the reward printed there. Then activate the brown powers of the birds in that row, from right to left. An empty forest gives 1 die. A forest with 4 birds gives 3 dice and up to 4 brown powers.
The birdfeeder has one extra rule. If every die left in it shows the same face, you may reroll all 5 dice before you take food.
When do bird powers trigger?
| Power color | When it triggers |
|---|---|
| Brown | Each time you take that row's action, right to left |
| White | Once, as soon as you play the bird |
| Pink | Once between your turns, when another player does what the card names |
| No power | Never; the bird scores its printed points |
Why do you get fewer turns each round?
Every round ends with one of your cubes placed on the goal board. That cube does not come back. You take 8 turns in round 1, 7 in round 2, 6 in round 3 and 5 in round 4. That's 26 turns in the whole game, so every action matters more as the game goes on.
At the end of each round, players are ranked on that round's goal tile, such as most birds in the forest. On the green side of the goal board, places score like this:
| Round | 1st | 2nd | 3rd |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 |
| 2 | 5 | 2 | 1 |
| 3 | 6 | 3 | 2 |
| 4 | 7 | 4 | 3 |
The other side scores 1 point per matching item, up to 5. It's the friendlier side for a first game.
How does Wingspan scoring work?
After round 4, add up 6 sources:
| Source | Points |
|---|---|
| Birds on your mat | The feather value on each card |
| Bonus cards | As printed on each card |
| Round goals | Your points on the goal board |
| Eggs | 1 per egg |
| Food cached on birds | 1 per token |
| Cards tucked under birds | 1 per card |
Most points wins. If players tie, the one with more unused food tokens wins. If they're still tied, they share the win.
A worked example
Say Maya ends with 13 birds worth 42 points. Her bonus card scores 7. On the goal board she took 1st in round 1 (4), 2nd in round 2 (2), 2nd in round 3 (3) and 2nd in round 4 (4), for 13. She has 15 eggs, 4 cached food tokens and 6 tucked cards. That's 42 + 7 + 13 + 15 + 4 + 6 = 87 points. Eggs gave her 15 of those 87, more than her bonus card did.
Can you play Wingspan solo?
Yes. The base box includes an Automa deck for 1 player. The Automa is a simple rival that takes turns, collects birds and competes for the round goals. You play your own turns with the normal rules.
| Players | What changes |
|---|---|
| 1 | Add the Automa deck as your rival |
| 2 | Normal rules; round goals are a straight race |
| 3 to 5 | Normal rules; pink powers trigger more often between turns |
How does Wingspan compare?
| Game | Players | Play time | Age | Complexity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wingspan | 1–5 | 40–70 min | 10+ | Medium |
| Catan | 3–4 (5–6 with expansion) | 60–90 min | 10+ | Medium |
| Ticket to Ride | 2–5 | 30–60 min | 8+ | Light |
| Azul | 2–4 | 30–45 min | 8+ | Light |
Wingspan is the quietest of these. You rarely block anyone, and there is no trading. Most of the game happens on your own mat, which suits players who like a growing engine more than table talk.
Does the European Expansion need the base game?
Yes. The European Expansion adds 81 bird cards, new bonus cards and new goal tiles. It also brings teal powers that trigger at the end of each round. It can't be played without the base box.
If you like Wingspan, try these
For tile drafting with a tidy final score, read our Azul guide. For trading and building, try Catan. For a lighter race across a map, try Ticket to Ride. Everything else is in our board games section.
Sources
- Stonemaier Games, Wingspan rulebook (current printing)
- Stonemaier Games, Wingspan game page (players, age, play time and box contents)
- CATAN GmbH, CATAN game page and rulebook, 6th edition
- Days of Wonder, Ticket to Ride rules (2025 edition)
How we check rules and build the intro card: our methodology.