The objective of the game is to build a collection of birds by 'flying home' flocks from their hand. A player wins when their collection contains either:

- At least one bird of seven different species

- Three birds of each of two different species

The game is set up with four face up rows of 4 bird cards, and each player has one random bird in their collection. Each player starts with 8 cards in their hand, and the game starts with the dealer and goes clockwise.

A game plays in several rounds. At the beginning of each round, players discard their hand and draw 8 cards from the deck. The person who ended the previous round takes the first turn. A round continues until either someone wins the game, or a player has no cards in hand.

Turn

Lay birds

On their turn, a player must lay one or more birds from their hand. All the birds of the chosen species that player has in their hand must be played. The player lays these birds (next to each other) on the left or the right side of one of the 4 rows at the center of the table. When a player places a bird in a row that already has one or more birds of that species, the player must take all the cards between these birds into their hand.

For example, if a player added the two Parrots to the left of this row, they would take the Owl and Flamingo:

After taking the surrounded cards, the remaining birds are moved together and new cards are added (placed on the left or the right) from the draw pile to this row until there are two different species in it.

If no cards were taken, the player may choose to draw two cards from the draw pile.

Complete a flock or "Fly Home" (optional)

A set of birds of the same species (a flock) that the player holds in their hand may be revealed to add one or two of these cards to their collection.

Each card has two numbers, the lower representing the number stated for the small flock and the higher representing the number stated for the big Flock. When the number of revealed cards is higher or equal to:

- The Small Flock: the player adds one of the revealed cards to their collection;

- The Big Flock: the player adds two of the revealed cards to their collection.

The remaining cards are placed into the discard pile. On their turn, a player can only complete a single Flock.

(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

A round ends when one of the players has no cards left in their hand. The remaining cards that players have in their hand go to the discard pile. The cards laid in rows at the center of the table remain in place. The player who ended the round becomes the new dealer.

End of the game

A player wins immediately if they collect:

- 7 different species, or

- 2 different species with at least 3 collections each

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

Flock Size of Different Birds

• Pink Flamingo: small 2, big 3, number 7
• Owl/Toucan: small 3, big 4, number 10
• Duck/Parrot: small 4, big 6, number 13
• Magpie: small 5, big 7, number 17
• Reed Warbler/Robin: small 6, big 9, number 20