Wingspan Bird Card Tier List – Version 2.6
This is our Wingspan Bird Card Tier List covering all expansions. What’s changed from the previous version? Check out the updates here: Wingspan Bird Card Tier List Update
WINGSEARCH is a great companion page to go with this list, as it will give you all of the card details.
God Tier | Tier 0 | Tier 1 | Tier 2 | Underused Tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bonelli's Eagle | Abbot's Booby | American Crow | American Avocet | Acorn Woodpecker |
| Chihuahuan Raven | Atlantic Puffin | American Redstart | American Bittern | American Goldfinch |
| Common Raven | Audouin's Gull | American Robin | American Coot | American Kestrel |
| Eastern Imperial Eagle | Barn Swallow | American Woodcock | Ash Throated Flycatcher | American Oystercatcher |
| Franklin's Gull | Baya Weaver | Anna's Hummingbird | Asian Emerald Dove | American White Pelican |
| Killdeer | Black Headed Gull | Asian Koel | Australian Magpie | Anhinga |
| Wood Duck (Oceania Meta) | Black Throated Diver | Australian Ibis | Australian Reed Warbler | Australasian Pipit |
| Blue Rock-Thrush | Australian Raven | Barrow's Goldeneye | Australasian Shoveler | |
| Brambling | Azure Tit | Belted Kingfisher | Australian Owlet Nightjar | |
| California Quail | Baird's Sparrow | Black Drongo | Australian Shelduck | |
| Chipping Sparrow | Bald Eagle | Black Swan | Australian Zebra Finch | |
| Common Yellowthroat | Baltimore Oriole | Black Tern | Barn Owl | |
| Eurasian Coot | Bell's Vireo | Bobolink | Barred Owl | |
| Great Crested Grebe | Black Chinned Hummingbird | Brewer's Blackbird | Bearded Reedling | |
| Great Indian Bustard | Black Crowned Night Heron | Broad Winged Hawk | Bewick's Wren | |
| Mandarin Duck | Black Noddy | Bronzed Cowbird | Black Bellied Whistling Duck | |
| Mourning Dove | Black Redstart | Brown Headed Cowbird | Black Billed Magpie | |
| North Island Brown Kiwi | Black Tailed Godwit | Budgerigar | Black Necked Stilt | |
| Pied Billed Grebe | Black-Naped Oriole | Bullfinch | Black Shouldered Kite | |
| Purple Martin | Blue Grey Gnatcatcher | Canada Goose | Black Skimmer | |
| Rainbow Lorikeet | Blue Winged Warbler | Carolina Wren | Black Stork | |
| Red Avadavat | Bluethroat | Carrion Crow | Black Vulture | |
| Red Breasted Merganser | Blyth's Hornbill | Cedar Waxwing | Black Woodpecker | |
| Rose Ringed Parakeet | Bushtit | Chestnut Collared Longspur | Blue Grosbeak | |
| Rosy Starling | Carolina Chickadee | Clark's Grebe | Blue Jay | |
| Ruddy Duck | Cassin's Finch | Coal Tit | Brahminy Kite | |
| Ruddy Shelduck | Cassin's Sparrow | Cockatiel | Brant | |
| Ruff | Cerulean Warbler | Common Buzzard | Brolga | |
| Scaly-Breasted Munia | Common Chaffinch | Common Goldeneye | Brown Falcon | |
| Snow Bunting | Common Chiffchaff | Common Kingfisher | Brown Pelican | |
| Spangled Drongo | Common Cuckoo | Common Moorhen | Brown Shrike | |
| Spotted Dove | Common Grackle | Common Starling | Burrowing Owl | |
| Sri Lanka Blue-Magpie | Common Iora | Common Swift | California Condor | |
| Twite | Common Myna | Coppersmith Barbet | Canvasback | |
| White Stork | Common Nightingale | Count Raggi's Bird of Paradise | Cetti's Warbler | |
| White Throated Dipper | Desert Wheatear | Crested Ibis | Chimney Swift | |
| Eastern Phoebe | Crimson Chat | Clark's Nutcracker | ||
| Eurasian Nutcracker | Dark Eyed Junco | Common Blackbird | ||
| European Goldfinch | Desert Finch | Common Green Magpie | ||
| Fish Crow | Downy Woodpecker | Common Little Bittern | ||
| Galah | Dunnock | Common Loon | ||
| Golden Eagle | Eastern Bluebird | Common Merganser | ||
| Golden Pheasant | Eastern Screech Owl | Common Nighthawk | ||
| Graceful Prina | Eurasian Collared Dove | Common Sandpiper | ||
| Grandala | Eurasian Eagle-Owl | Common Tailorbird | ||
| Grasshopper Sparrow | Eurasian Golden Oriole | Common Teal | ||
| Gray Catbird | Eurasian Hobby | Cooper's Hawk | ||
| Great Blue Heron | Eurasian Hoopoe | Corsican Nuthatch | ||
| Great Egret | Eurasian Kestrel | Crested Lark | ||
| Great Hornbill | Eurasian Magpie | Crested Pigeon | ||
| Great Horned Owl | Eurasian Marsh-Harrier | Dickcissel | ||
| Greater Roadrunner | Eurasian Nuthatch | Double Crested Cormorant | ||
| Green Pheasant | Eurasian Sparrowhawk | Eastern Kingbird | ||
| Grey Butcherbird | European Bee Eater | Eastern Rosella | ||
| Grey Teal | European Robin | Eastern Whipbird | ||
| Himalayan Monal | Forster's Tern | Eleonora's Falcon | ||
| Hooded Warbler | Golden Headed Cisticola | Emu | ||
| House Crow | Gould's Finch | Eurasian Green Woodpecker | ||
| House Finch | Gray Wagtail | Eurasian Jay | ||
| House Sparrow | Great Spotted Woodpecker | Eurasian Tree Sparrow | ||
| Ibisbill | Great Tit | Eurasian Treecreeper | ||
| Indian Peafowl | Greater Adjutant | European Honey Buzzard | ||
| Indigo Bunting | Greater Prairie Chicken | European Roller | ||
| Kakapo | Green Bee-Eater | European Turtle Dove | ||
| Large-Billed Crow | Green Heron | Ferruginous Hawk | ||
| Laughing Kookaburra | Grey Headed Mannikin | Fire-Fronted Serin | ||
| Lesser Frigatebird | Grey Heron | Forest Owlet | ||
| Lesser Whitethroat | Grey Warbler | Goldcrest | ||
| Little Penguin | Greylag Goose | Great Cormorant | ||
| Little Ringed Plover | Griffon Vulture | Great Crested Flycatcher | ||
| Magpie Lark | Hermit Thrush | Greater Flamingo | ||
| Mallard | Hooded Crow | Green Pygmy Goose | ||
| Maned Duck | Hooded Merganser | Grey Shrikethrush | ||
| Many Colored Fruit Dove | House Wren | Hawfinch | ||
| Masked Lapwing | Inca Dove | Horned Lark | ||
| Moltoni's Warbler | Juniper Titmouse | Horsfield's Bronze Cuckoo | ||
| Mountain Chickadee | Kea | Horsfield's Bushlark | ||
| Mute Swan | King Rail | Indian Vulture | ||
| Northern Flicker | Lazuli Bunting | Kelp Gull | ||
| Northern Goshawk | Lewin's Honeyeater | Kereru | ||
| Northern Mockingbird | Little Egret | Korimako | ||
| Oriental Bay-Owl | Little Grebe | Lincoln's Sparrow | ||
| Painted Whitestart | Little Pied Cormorant | Little Bustard | ||
| Peaceful Dove | Long Tailed Tit | Little Owl | ||
| Pheasant Coucal | Malleefowl | Loggerhead Shrike | ||
| Pileated Woodpecker | Mississippi Kite | Major Mitchell's Cockatoo | ||
| Prothonotary Warbler | Mountain Bluebird | Mistletoebird | ||
| Red Breasted Nuthatch | Noisy Miner | Montagu's Harrier | ||
| Red Junglefowl | Northern Bobwhite | Musk Duck | ||
| Red Knot | Northern Cardinal | New Holland Honeyeater | ||
| Red Legged Partridge | Northern Shoveler | Northern Gannet | ||
| Red Winged Black Bird | Olive-Backed Sunbird | Northern Harrier | ||
| Rhinoceros Auklet | Orange Footed Scrubfowl | Pacific Black Duck | ||
| Rook | Oriental Magpie-Robin | Parrot Crossbill | ||
| Roseate Spoonbill | Osprey | Peregrine Falcon | ||
| Ruby Throated Hummingbird | Painted Bunting | Pesquet's Parrot | ||
| Rufous Owl | Philippine Eagle | Pine Siskin | ||
| Sacred Kingfisher | Plains Wanderer | Pink Eared Duck | ||
| Savi's Warbler | Plumbeous Redstart | Pukeko | ||
| Scaled Quail | Princess Stephanie's Astrapia | Purple Heron | ||
| Scissor Tailed Flycatcher | Purple Gallinule | Pygmy Nuthatch | ||
| Silvereye | Red Backed Fairywren | Red Backed Shrike | ||
| Small Minivet | Red Cockaded Woodpecker | Red Bellied Woodpecker | ||
| Smew | Red Eyed Vireo | Red Capped Robin | ||
| Spotted Owl | Red Headed Woodpecker | Red Crossbill | ||
| Stubble Quail | Red Winged Parrot | Red Kite | ||
| Trumpeter Finch | Red-Crowned Crane | Red Necked Avocet | ||
| Trumpeter Swan | Red-Wattled Lapwing | Red Shouldered Hawk | ||
| Violet Cuckoo | Regent Bowerbird | Red Tailed Hawk | ||
| Wedge Tailed Eagle | Ring Billed Gull | Red Wattlebird | ||
| White Backed Woodpecker | Rock Pigeon | Red-Vented Bulbul | ||
| White Bellied Sea Eagle | Rose Breasted Grosbeak | Royal Spoonbill | ||
| White Breasted Nuthatch | Ruby Crowned Kinglet | Rufous Banded Honeyeater | ||
| White Faced Ibis | Sandhill Crane | Rufous Night Heron | ||
| White Throated Swift | Sarus Crane | Satyr Tragopan | ||
| White Wagtail | Savannah Sparrow | Snowy Owl | ||
| White-Headed Duck | Say's Phoebe | Song Sparrow | ||
| Whooping Crane | Short Toed Treecreeper | South Island Robin | ||
| Wild Turkey | Snowy Egret | Spoon-Billed Sandpiper | ||
| Willow Tit | Southern Cassowary | Spotless Crake | ||
| Woodstork | Splendid Fairywren | Squacco Heron | ||
| Wrybill | Spotted Sandpiper | Sri Lanka Frogmouth | ||
| Yellowhammer | Spotted Towhee | Stellar's Jay | ||
| Sprague's Pipit | Stork-Billed Kingfisher | |||
| Tawny Frogmouth | Sulphur Crested Cockatoo | |||
| Tree Swallow | Superb Lyrebird | |||
| Tufted Titmouse | Swainson's Hawk | |||
| Verditer Flycatcher | Thekla's Lark | |||
| Violet Green Swallow | Tui | |||
| Western Meadowlark | Turkey Vulture | |||
| Western Tanager | Vaux's Swift | |||
| White Breasted Woodswallow | Welcome Swallow | |||
| White-Crested Laughingthrush | White Crowned Sparrow | |||
| White-Throated Kingfisher | White Faced Heron | |||
| Willet | White-Browed Tit-Warbler | |||
| Willie Wagtail | Yellow Bellied Sapsucker | |||
| Wilson's Snipe | Yellow Bittern | |||
| Wilson's Storm Petrel | Yellow Breasted Chat | |||
| Yellow Billed Cuckoo | Yellow Rumped Warbler | |||
| Yellow Headed Blackbird | Zebra Dove | |||
Wingspan Tier List Revision History
Version 1.1
Version 1.2
Version 1.3
Version 2.0
Version 2.1
Version 2.2
Version 2.3
Version 2.4
Version 2.5
Version 2.5.1
Version 2.6
Tier List Definitions
God Tier: Traditionally, these cards can facilitate a runaway win on their own (The Power 4). As the metagame evolves and more expansions are released, this tier may have to grow to accommodate cards such as Bonelli’s Eagle and Eastern Imperial Eagle, which facilitate huge point swings without the need for food and can be played off of the free actions granted by birds such as Yellowhammer and the birds like it.
Tier 0: Could be considered “The Best of Tier 1” or “The Bottom of God Tier”. More effective, efficient, and/or game shaping than Tier 1 cards but not necessarily as impactful as God Tier birds.
Tier 1: Effective, efficient, and game shaping cards. These are among the best cards in the game and represent some of the best general qualities and/or powers. These will be the bread and butter of the best games.
Tier 2: Cards that have desirable general qualities and/or powers that can be useful in the right circumstances. These cards could be a key component of a combo or engine and might not otherwise be very effective on their own. Canada Goose is a good example of this type of card.
Underused Tier: These are cards that don’t see play at our table often due to “better” options being available most of the time. Being in this Tier doesn’t necessarily mean that a card is bad. It just means that they may consistently lose out in head-to-head decisions made between one card or another. These end up being prime Tuck/Discard fodder.
Check Out These Links for More Information
Advanced Wingspan Strategy Guide :
- Understanding The North American (Core Set) Metagame
- Understanding The European Expansion Metagame
- Understanding The Oceania Expansion Metagame
Featured Video
Check us out on YouTube: Wingsplain Gaming
Feels like the common moorhen should be way higher on the list. I’d put it tier 1, since it’s somewhat dependent on getting other decent water birds, and having a decent food supply (since each bird you play with it essentially has its cost increased by 1), but for a couple of the best games I’ve had, the moorhen was super important
Hello sharpChed,
I’m glad you’ve had some good games with the Moorhen. In my personal experience, and in talking with other players in the competitive tournament community, the Moorhen just doesn’t make much of an impact and it doesn’t produce high scoring games. It’s expensive for a three point bird. It does have a great six egg star nest but that alone doesn’t convince people to play it. It can be pretty difficult for a wetland engine to produce the extra food for the Moorhen’s power without also handing some out to your opponents, which is a two edged sword.
Would love to see some bird rankings within a specific category/for a specific purpose. Top 7 late game point bombs and why. Best early forest birds. Top pink powers.
Hello Paul,
Here’s my ranking for Wingspan Pink Powers.
Grey/gray is spelled 2 different ways throughout the list. Was this intentional?
A quick look at Wingsearch reveals that there are seven Grey birds and 3 Gray birds.
Thanks for your interesting bloc. Where can I read your criteria for each of the tiers? Also would be helpful to show which pack the birds belong to?
Hello Dalene,
Thanks for checking out the list. Wingsearch makes a great companion for this list, as it has all the card detail you could be looking for.
Curious why Sandhill Crane and Canada Goose are not in the higher tiers? They are good scoring point birds?
These birds can certainly be powerhouses when they have the correct support. That support often takes specific cards and specific timing to make a significant impact. It’s been my experience that the more support or micromanagement a bird needs, the less powerful it becomes in practice. The Canada Goose archetype of birds can have high highs and low lows in practice.
Check out my Canada Goose/Sandhill Crane playlist on YouTube to see these birds in action.
Wondering about the criteria that you used to organised the bird tiers? I can see the definitions, but would love to read some more detail about criteria?
Hello Dalene,
The tier definitions pretty much summarize my ranking criteria. If you read through all of the tier list revision history posts, you will see more of my thought process for moving birds up or down. You might also want to check out this article I did a while back about Objectively Ranking Birds.
The more I’ve played Oceania (not familiar with Asia birds), the more I’ve found wood duck to be absolutely god-tier and teal powers that lay eggs or play birds to be tier-0.
Yeah, nectar really elevates Wood Duck to the next level. Those teal powers feel like they get a boost as well.
I’m not getting the rating for the Peregrine Falcon. It has the same brown power as the Golden Eagle and the Great Horned Owl. Plus, it’s cheaper than those cards.
8 Point birds can often be more valuable than 5-point birds with an average power. Especially if the 8 point bird also has an average or better power on top of its point value.
While I do agree that the Golden Eagle and Great Horned owl are more well rounded birds due to the fact that they do double duty as a good vanilla bird in the lategame.
Putting Peregrine falcon in the bottom tier while similar cards like the Grey butcherbird are in tier 1 seems like an oversight to me.
They are both 5 feathers with 2 egg spaces, and their brown abilities have the same expected value per activation (40 percent 2 pts vs 80 percent 1 pt).
The grey butcherbird is a bit more flexible by being able to be played in the forest, while the peregrine falcon is a better bird in the early game due to it’s cheaper cost.
All in all I find the peregrine falcon a bird I am very happy to see in my opening hands in Oceania. It’s so affordable with the extra starting nectar, can go in 2 biomes and usually totals 10 or more points by the end of the game. That does not read as a bottom tier bird to me.
Here’s how I describe the Under Used Tier (UUT) on the tier list: “Underused Tier: These are cards that don’t see play at our table often due to “better” options being available most of the time. Being in this Tier doesn’t necessarily mean that a card is bad. It just means that they may consistently lose out in head-to-head decisions made between one card or another. These end up being prime Tuck/Discard fodder.”
That’s clear to me, I just don’t understand the discrepancy between the ranking between the butcherbird and the peregrine, seeing how they are both so similar in power
I am the renegade who loves the horned lark…perfect card to unload trash… if you don’t have trash when prompted so what, just pass. If played early on a for sure 9 to 10 pointer. My best score ever of 184 he was part of the mix, gained over 10 points with him that game. Everyone is wrong about this card. 🙂
Yeah, I think Horned Lark has gotten a bad rap in the past. It’s not terrible.
A lot of these ratings are completely expected (looking at you Ravens) and others are pretty surprising. I haven’t had much of a chance to play with the Asia expansion birds so maybe they change how the game is played but at least in the online adaptation tuck birds are extremely dominant right now; 4 birds that come to mind in particular are the Galah, Common Chiffchaff, Maned Duck & Mute Swan. I noticed you placed all of them in Tier 1, is that because using them generally requires you to fully commit to tucking?
These “mass tuckers” as I call them do function best when you fully commit to a wetland tucking engine. Wetland tucking strategies do fall off a bit in effectiveness in the Oceania metagame, primarily due to the importance of nectar and the overall strength of Forest strategies.
I’ve been looking for some suggestions for a “cube” list for Wingspan. We’re playing with all of the expansions meaning there is lots of bloat. I was looking to see what cards people suggest to remove in order to have a more consistent power level from game to game and player to player.
I personally find that the more cards that are added, the better. I don’t want to see and use the same birds every time. Some of the most satisfying games is where you make good use of a bird that is generally under rated or bad. Plus the more cards there are, the less often the dominating God tier birds show up.
I’ve thought about making a cube list myself but I’ve never gotten around to it. One important thing to consider is that bonus cards and round goals will be heavily impacted by removing certain birds. I think this is the main reason I haven’t really come up with a list. I would start by removing some of the birds from the Underused Tier of this list.
Would be awesome if you made each bird in this list link to its corresponding page on wingsearch
That would be a lot of work for us to do, especially when it comes time to update the list and move things around. The WordPress code looks pretty messy. You could just have Wingsearch open in another window and look up the birds yourself.
I was surprised to see Australian Owlet Nightjar ranked so low. Is it because it’s value is predicated on getting it out early in the game and with high player counts? I just had dominating game where I made it my first Wetland bird and it really pulled it’s weight. Curious on your thoughts on that and the birds with similar “Gain a food when someone else gains food” I’m am also aware that the opposing players can try to make sure it activates as little as possible so that also can be a determining factor. That being said, does the tier list assume games will consist of 5 extremely high skilled players?
This list is based on my experience playing competitively with the players on the Wingspan Tournament Discord. As with any card, the Owlet can have its moments to shine. More often than not though, it doesn’t seem to make much of an impact. This is more true in the Oceania metagame where food is much more prevalent in general.
Has anyone tried to remove the underused birds completly from the game? How did the game go?
I haven’t tried it but I’ve thought about it. The biggest impact would be to bonus card and round goal scoring.