Gather flocks of birds into your hand so you can gain points for flying them home.

The game begins with 12 bird cards in the center of the table and 1 random bird species already in your collection. Everyone has 8 cards in their hand. On your turn you will exchange cards in hand for cards on the table (or take 2 cards from the draw deck) as you attempt to complete sets.

Turn

Lay birds

On your turn, you MUST lay all birds of one species onto the table from your hand. Place them all at the end of the row of your choice.

If a matching species is in that row, take all the cards sandwiched between the card you just layed and the matching species. For example, if a player added the two Parrots to the left of this row, they would take the Owl and Flamingo:

If all the birds remaining in that row are of the same species, cards are added to the row from the draw deck until there are two different species in the row.

If you didn't take any cards from the row, you may take 2 cards from the draw deck or pass (and not add any cards to your hand).

Complete a flock or "Fly Home" (optional)

A set of birds of the same species is called a flock. Each card has 2 "set completion" numbers on it, representing a small flock and a big flock. When you have enough matching cards in hand to complete a flock, small or big, you may "fly the flock home."

- The Small Flock: Add ONE of the cards to your personal collection and discard the rest of the flock.

- The Big Flock: Add TWO of the cards to your personal collection and discard the rest of the flock.

You can only complete one Flock per turn.

(Note that the BGA implementation gives a few seconds of "thinking time" for this decision even if you cannot play a flock, so that your opponent cannot tell whether you have an unclaimed flock in hand.)

End of a round

When a player has no cards left in their hand, the player may either draw two cards (thus continuing the current round) or start a new round. If the player chooses to start a new round, everyone discards their entire hand and draws 8 new cards. The cards in the center of the table remain as they are. The player who ended the round becomes the start player.

End of the game

A player wins immediately if they collect:

- at least 1 card from each of 7 different species, or

- at least 3 cards from each of 2 different species

If it is impossible to deal 8 cards to each player (even with the discard pile), the game ends immediately, and the player with the most bird cards in their collection wins the game.

Flock Size of Different Birds

• Pink Flamingo: small 2 / big 3 (7 total in the deck)
• Owl and Toucan: small 3 / big 4 (10 total in the deck)
• Duck and Parrot: small 4 / big 6 (13 total in the deck)
• Magpie: small 5 / big 7 (17 total in the deck)
• Reed Warbler and Robin: small 6 / big 9 (20 total in the deck)