How to Play Wingspan: Actions, Bird Powers, Rounds & Scoring
Wingspan is an engine-building game played over four rounds. Each turn you spend one action cube to play a bird, gain food, lay eggs or draw bird cards. Birds make the three habitat actions stronger, while their powers create combinations that can produce resources and points over the course of the game.
Researched rules guide. Checked September 15, 2026 against Stonemaier Games’ current Wingspan rules resources. This page covers the original base game. European, Oceania, Asia and Americas expansion rules are separate unless specifically noted. No hands-on testing is claimed. Editorial standards.
On this page: Set up your preserve · Choose one of four actions · Play a bird · Gain food · Lay eggs · Draw bird cards · Resolve bird powers in the right order · End rounds and score goals · Calculate final scoring
Set up your preserve and opening hand
Give each player a player mat and eight action cubes. Prepare the bird tray, bird deck, bonus cards, food supply, egg supply, birdfeeder and round-goal board according to the rulebook.
Each player receives five bird cards and one food token of each of the five base food types. Before play, choose which bird cards to keep. For every bird card you keep, discard one food token. You also keep one of two bonus cards and discard the other.
This opening choice matters because a bird card is not useful merely because it is strong later. You need a legal habitat and enough food to play the birds you keep.
Spend one action cube each turn
On your turn, place one unused action cube to take exactly one of four actions:
- Play one bird from your hand.
- Gain food in the forest habitat.
- Lay eggs in the grassland habitat.
- Draw bird cards in the wetland habitat.
The three habitat actions become stronger as you add birds to their rows. After resolving the printed habitat benefit, move the action cube from right to left across that habitat and activate eligible brown powers as you reach them.
Play a bird by paying its food and egg costs
Choose a bird from your hand and place it in one of the habitats shown on its card. Pay the bird’s food cost, using any permitted substitutions printed in the rules or on the card.
The first bird in a habitat does not require an egg payment. Later columns require eggs as shown at the top of the player mat. Pay those eggs from birds already in your preserve.
After placing the bird, resolve its white “when played” power if it has one. Playing a bird does not activate the brown powers in that habitat row.
Gain food through the forest row
Place an action cube in the first empty slot of your forest row, starting from the right side of your existing birds. Take the amount of food shown on the exposed forest action space.
Food normally comes from dice in the birdfeeder. Choose an available die showing a food type you can take, remove it from the birdfeeder and gain the matching token. Some faces show a choice between two food types.
If the birdfeeder becomes empty, reroll all five dice. The rules also allow a reroll when every die remaining in the feeder shows the same face, including when only one die remains. Then continue resolving any remaining food gains.
After gaining food, move your action cube left across the forest and activate eligible brown powers from right to left.
Lay eggs in the grassland row
Use the grassland action to gain the number of eggs shown on the exposed action space. Place each egg on a bird with available egg capacity.
A bird cannot hold more eggs than its printed capacity. You may distribute eggs among different birds, and eggs are not assigned to specific nests for ordinary storage purposes.
Eggs have several roles: they score one point each at the end of the game, they can satisfy round goals or bird powers, and they are spent when playing birds in later columns.
After laying eggs, move the action cube left and resolve eligible brown powers in the grassland from right to left.
Draw bird cards in the wetland row
Use the wetland action to draw the number of bird cards shown on the exposed action space. Cards may be taken from the three face-up cards in the tray or from the top of the bird deck.
When you take a face-up bird, do not immediately refill that space during the action. Refill the tray after the turn is complete. This means later draws in the same action use what is still available or draw from the deck.
After drawing cards, move the action cube left and activate eligible brown powers in the wetland from right to left.
Bird-power color tells you when it can trigger
| Power color | Base-game timing |
|---|---|
| White | Resolve once when the bird is played. |
| Brown | May activate when your action cube passes that bird during its habitat action. |
| Pink | Triggers when its stated condition occurs on another player’s turn, normally at most once between your turns. |
Always read the complete text on the card. A power may be optional, may require a target, or may depend on a card, food die or other game state. Expansion sets add additional power colors and timing rules that are outside this base-game guide.
Each round leaves you with one fewer action cube
Round 1 begins with eight action cubes per player. At the end of the round, each player places one used cube on the round-goal board to record the goal result. That cube remains there for the rest of the game.
You therefore have seven turns in round 2, six in round 3 and five in round 4. The declining action count is one of the central timing constraints in Wingspan.
Resolve the current round goal according to the side of the goal board being used. Then clear the bird tray as directed, refresh it for the next round, move the first-player marker and begin the next round.
Final scoring combines several point sources
After round 4, total the scoring categories on the scorepad:
- Printed victory points on played birds.
- Points from completed bonus cards.
- Round-goal points.
- One point for each egg on your birds.
- One point for each food token cached on a bird.
- One point for each card tucked beneath a bird.
Food remaining in your general supply does not score simply for being unspent. The player with the highest total wins; use the rulebook’s tiebreak procedure if needed.
Common Wingspan rules mistakes
- Activating brown powers after playing a bird: the Play a Bird action does not run the habitat row.
- Resolving habitat powers left to right: the action cube moves from right to left.
- Refilling the bird tray immediately after each draw: refill it after the turn.
- Ignoring egg capacity: eggs must fit on birds with open egg spaces.
- Counting unspent supply food as points: ordinary food in your supply is not a final-scoring category.
Continue learning Wingspan
- Wingspan game guide and expansion overview
- Wingspan strategy: engine timing, habitats, cards and endgame conversion
- Wingspan expansion compatibility
- Wingspan Pocket — a separate, lighter standalone game rather than an expansion.
Sources and scope
- Stonemaier Games: Wingspan
- Stonemaier Games: Wingspan rules and FAQ resources
- Official searchable Wingspan rules reference
Checked September 15, 2026. This page covers the original base game. Expansion power colors, nectar, Duet mode, Flock mode and other expansion-specific systems require their own instructions.