Discussion: least favourite bonus cards

[Florrible]

What does everyone think is the worst bonus card in the deck? Personally I think it’s bird feeder?

[Archisian]

Visionary Leader (Number of cards in hand) or Breeding Manager. (1pt for each bird with 4 eggs).

[Groovenstein]

“Least favorite” and “worst” might yield different answers. Worst I don’t see anything topping (bottoming?) visionary leader, though I understand the shoutouts to bird feeder and breeding manager. Rarely is drawing to hit visionary going to beat another action, and it never helps you with EOR (in base game anyway).

Apart from visionary, the one that just irritates me the most is probably historian.

[FrankJones]

Visionary leader is terrible. I wish it were removed from the deck.
Bird feeder is bad. Difficult to get the low bonus and nearly impossible to get the high bonus.

I don't mind historian. A lot of strong birds score points for Historian. I had 10 points the last time I had historian.

[JohnRM]

Visionary Leader is the worst followed by bird feeder in a distant second.

As far as ergonomics, I'd say Passerine Specialist and Large Bird Specialist, having to hover over each card to read the tiny wingspan info.

[Archisian]

Another bad bonus card is Backyard Birder. Why would you invest so much into birds less than 4 points? Yeah, there are great birds for cheap, like Spotted Towhee and all the Tuck birds. But if you don't get them, this bonus card sucks! It's only utility, in my opinion, is at the end of the game if you have an engine built around those good cards already in place. Taking it in the opening hand just sets you up to be behind in points, unless you get luck on your side. The only time I'll take Backyard Birder over another bonus in the opening hand is if it's a choice between it and Visionary Leader and maybe Breeding manager. But at least with Breeding Manger, there are cards that are 4-5+ pts that have 4 eggs slots to invest in. That would either equal or surpass any major investment in Backyard Birder.

[FrankJones]

Backyard birder is weak, but as noted, several early game birds help. I usually figure that one for "small bonus only" and occasionally luck into the higher bonus with some of the "play another bird" birds.

It's not the only bonus card that is difficult to meet the high bonus. The cards that require 3 or 5 forest/wetland only are very difficult to hit the high bonus. How often do we even get 5 wetland or forest birds in the base game? Let alone 3 that only live in that habitat.

[Archisian]

Backyard birder is weak, but as noted, several early game birds help. I usually figure that one for "small bonus only" and occasionally luck into the higher bonus with some of the "play another bird" birds.

It's not the only bonus card that is difficult to meet the high bonus. The cards that require 3 or 5 forest/wetland only are very difficult to hit the high bonus. How often do we even get 5 wetland or forest birds in the base game? Let alone 3 that only live in that habitat.

Yeah, those ones are pretty tough to get. I find the Wetland one harder because most of the cards worth going there have a high food cost and there are only 2 birds that I can recall that allow you to play a second bird (Great Blue Heron and Great Egret). The one for the Forest is easier since there are birds with a decent food cost for their point value that go there and there are more birds for the Forest where you can play a second bird, I think. Don't quote me on that though, haha.

The Grassland one is much more generous. I think it's one of the better bonus cards since you want to be laying eggs at the final round anyway and there are plenty of Grassland only birds around.

[Madlaine]

Seeds birds, small birds and cheap birds are not my least favorite, they are literally unplayable.

[FrankJones]

Seeds birds, small birds and cheap birds are not my least favorite, they are literally unplayable.

?

Small birds is quite literally playable. All that needs to be done is click the mouse and ... the card is played.

Okay, I'm kidding, sort of. I realize you were using "literally" figuratively to actually mean figuratively, not literally. Which has been trending over the last 10-15 years, much to my chagrin, since it makes the word meaningless being that it can mean its actual definition or its literal opposite.

Anyway, there are numerous small birds with very strong brown powers or high point values. This is not a bad bonus card at all.

American Redstart
Anna's Hummingbird
Baird's Sparrow
Baltimore Oriole
Bell's Vireo
Black-chinned Hummingbird
Blue-gnat gnatcatcher
Blue-winged Warbler
Brown-headed Cowbird
Bushtit
Carolina Chickadee
Carolina Wren
Cassin's Finch
Cassin's Sparrow
Cerulean Warbler
Chestnut-collared Longspur
Chipping Sparrow
Common Yellowthroat
Downy Woodpecker
Eastern Phoebe
Grasshopper Sparrow
Gray Catbird
Hermit Thrush
Hooded Warbler
House Finch
House Wren
Indigo Bunting
Juniper Titmouse
Lazuli Bunting
Lincoln's Sparrow
Mountain Chickadee
Northern Cardinal
Painted Bunting
Painted Whitestart
Prothonotary Warbler
Red Crossbill
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Red-Eyed Vireo
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Spotted Towhee
Sprague's Pipit
Tufted Titmouse
Western Tanager
White-breasted Nuthatch
White-crowned Sparrow
Yellow-Rumped Warbler

And 14 other birds that I consider not good birds to play but others might disagree.

Those birds in that list also have good synergy with other good bonus cards such as photographer, omnivore, anatomist.