Your personal bonus card tiers

[Archisian]

Seeing and commenting on the thread about least favorite bonus cards, I wanted to start a thread about our own personal tier list. This is just mine and I give my reasoning for them. I'd like to see what you guys have. Cards with similar investment, I put together.

S-Tier
Ecologist (Birds in your habitat with the fewest birds)- Great bonus card with a super simple condition that usually nets you a minimum of 4 pts, an average of 6. I've seen people score 8 with this card. Just really good.

Fishery Manager (Birds that eat fish)/Viticulturist (Birds that eat fruit)- Low investment for a good amount of points. 2 birds automatically nets you 3 pts. 4 gets you 7pts. Lots of birds eat these food types. Most wetland birds eat fish, so even low investment in the Wetland gives you 3 pts. Many useful birds also eat fruit.

Prairie Manager (Birds that can only live in Grassland)- The best habitat bonus card. Just 2 birds gives you 3 pts. And since laying eggs is the most effective way to get points, getting this bonus card can really help you when behind or further distance yourself for a victory.

A-Tier
Anatomist (Birds with body parts in their names)/Cartographer (Birds with geography terms in their names)- Pretty good cards with low investment cost. Minimum 2 birds nets you 3 pts, 4+ nets you 7. However, since these cards respective conditions are more specific than Fishery Manager and Viticulturist, it keeps them out of the S-Tier for me. I often just get the low score from these cards, but I sometimes get the max. Usually for Cartographer and more infrequently for Anatomist. Not sure why, maybe it's just my experience.

Enclosure Builder (Birds with ground nests)/Nest Box Builder (Birds with cavity nests)/Platform Builder (Birds with platform nests)/Wildlife Gardner (Birds with bowl nests)- Though these cards require more investment than the others listed so far (minimum 4 birds for low score), they are easily achieved with help from birds with Star nests. Since end-of-round goals often require eggs in these nest types, most of them, you'll achieve the low score.

Omnivore Expert (Birds that eat wild)- While the condition isn't the greatest (2 pts per bird), the fact is a lot of really good birds eat wild, especially the beloved Crows. So this bonus cards is quite easy to rack a lot of points in. To me, it's the best bonus card that gives 2 pts per bird.

B-Tier
Forester (Birds that can only live in forest)- A bonus card that gives a lot of points (8 pts) for heavy investment. Problem is that investing heavily in the Forest is a risk because you want to laying eggs towards the end-game. Investing that much into the Forest deprives you of doing that. However, this weakness is offset by the fact that the Forest has a lot of Forest-only birds that let you draw extra bonus cards for a lower cost than Wetland Scientist. Plus, the minimum investment is 3 birds for 4 pts. I don't think there is a Forest-Only bird that lets you draw extra bonuses that cost more than 2 food. At least none that come to mind.

Food Web Expert (Birds that eat only invertebrate)/Historian (Birds named after a person)/Bird Counter (Birds with a tucking power)- A group of 2 pts per bird bonuses that give some easy points for minimal investment. The issue is their conditions making trying to maximize the score of these bonuses risky. Food Web Expert has a lot of low score birds. Historian has a specific condition that can conflict with your engine since many of the birds don't synergize well with each other. Bird Counter is the best one of the group, but since there are a lot of good cards in this group (American Robin, Purple Martin, Barn Swallow, House Finch, etc.), you'll probably be competing hard with your opponent to get them. Overall, they are nice bonus cards, but not great.

Rodentologist (Birds that eat rodent)/Falconer (Birds with a predator power)- I put these cards together because they are rather intertwined: most birds that eat rats also have a Predator Power. There are really good cards in this group, with high card value and high potential to get even more points through the Predator Power. However, there are a few downsides to these cards. The first being at the Vultures and Black-Billed Magpie exist. Yeah, there are only 3 of them, but their ability can effective neuter that point potential you can achieve, because giving your opponent 1 food of their choosing versus your 1 point isn't worth it. The second downside is that most of these birds have a high food cost. There are some that are cheap (Cooper's Hawk, Red-Shouldered Hawk, Barred Owl, etc.), but most cost at least 2 food, and often times 3. The final downside that one of the two Predator Powers is terrible: the one that rolls the food dice in the box that gives you a point if it matches their type. Just a really poor ability that doesn't help you most of the time.

Oologist (Birds that have at least 1 egg laid on them)- A card with a high investment, but simple condition. As mentioned, you want to lay eggs in the end-game. This card is easy to get a few extra points by doing something you should already be doing.

Passerine Specialist (Birds with wingspans 30 cm or less)- A lot of really good birds are within this group (Baltimore Oriole, Blue-Winged Warbler, Sprague's Pipit, etc.) that make getting the low score not hard to obtain. It is a high investment (4 birds for 3 pts), but this bonus card hits more often than not.

C-Tier
Wetland Scientist (Birds that can only live in wetland)- The worst habitat bonus card, but it's still decent. Getting the low score is easy. Getting the high score is difficult. The Wetland is the one habitat that you don't want to heavily invest in. 2-3 birds is all you really need. Sure, it can synergize with cards like Fishery Manager and Falconer, but without it, it's hard to justify going hard in the Wetland. A lot of the really good birds in the Wetland also have a high cost (Trumpeter Swan, Roseate Spoonbill, Wood stork, etc.). Even King Rail. a 4 pt bonus bird, costs 3 food! So, while better than other bonus cards further down the list, if I had better options, I pass on this one.

Photographer (Birds with colors in their names)- You'd think this bonus card would be really good because over 1/3 of the cards in this game meet this condition. It's not. First, it's a card with a specific condition. Second, many of those cards don't synergize well with each other. Third, it requires a large investment to reach the low score (4 birds for 3 pts). While you can get the low score often, most of the time, you are looking for birds that work well with the engine you are building, so you'll be passing on a lot of birds that meet this condition.

Large Bird Specialist (Birds with wingspans over 65 cm)- This bonus card is strictly worse than Passerine Specialist because most of the birds in this category have high costs (The good ones being 2 food minimum, usually 3) and requires a lot of investment (4 birds for only 3 pts). If you are investment in these kinds of cards, then it can work for you. I sometimes hit the minimum score, but rarely the top socre.

D-Tier
Backyard Birder (Birds worth less than 4 points)- Yes, there are good cards in this category (the almighty tuck power birds), but as I said before, you are probably competing for your opponent for those cards. Besides them, a lot of these other cards are just really bad. You have some exceptions (Spotted Towhee, Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher, Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker, Song Sparrow), but most birds in this category don't have abilities that are worth justifying a most of your capital (and more importantly, your turns) playing low cost birds just to reach the low score (5 birds for only 3 pts).

E-Tier
Breeding Manager (Birds that have at least 4 eggs laid on them)- The worst egg-laying bonus card. Yeah, there are good birds that have 4 or more slots in their nest. But only 1 pt per bird? 5 birds only give you 5 pts! This is just a really bad bonus card and will only give you a couple of extra points at best. That can make the difference, but I would only choose this bonus card over any other except for one, which is the bonus card in the F-Tier. At least this card gives you some points by doing something.

F-Tier
Visionary Leader (Bird cards in hand at end of game)- A bonus card that rewards you... for not playing cards. Or doing any other action than just drawing cards. So, while your opponents are playing cards and laying eggs for fulfill bonuses and end-of-round goals, this bonus is doing nothing for you. This bonus card is the only bonus card that doesn't even help for an end-of-round goal. Absolutely awful bonus card. The one time, and really the only time, this card could have any benefit is you have a combo of Ruddy Duck, Pied-Billed Grebe and Common Yellowthroat to draw more cards because you had an awful starting hand. Or you somehow plan to play your strategy strictly through the Wetland (Not the greatest of strategies). Even still, I toss this bonus card into the the discard deck every time.

[Archisian]

I forgot to put Bird Feeder.

Bird Feeder (Birds that eat seed) goes in the D-Tier. For a bonus card that has a lot of cards eligible for its condition (44%), the investment cost is way too much (5 birds minimum) for so little (3 pts low score). Like some other bonus cards, you'll be sacrificing a lot of really good cards just to make the low score. It has utility, just not very good utility.

[illy831]

For me bonuses are mostly situational rather than easily tiered. That is, many bonuses are viable but at the point where deciding "what's better" is relevant (mainly at the start of the game) it depends so much on starting hand and round goals. With a few notably weak ones as you mention: Bird Feeder (usually; it seems to require one bird too many for each tier) and Visionary Leader (almost always, especially without Wood Duck, Franklin's Gull, and Killdeer). To a lesser extent, Backyard Birder (small point birds): it is rarely worth the chase, in my experience.

My safest picks are Ecologist and Oologist. Sometimes, you don't want to balance habitats and so would strain to score six with Ecologist. Sometimes, the round goals or something else (like a Cowbird) gets in the way of Oologist. Most times, it's six points with minimal constraint on your play. Safe is good.

The next 'safest' ones are the 2-point-per-matching card bonuses if you can start with access to at least one, maybe two in the case of Food Web since those birds are rare. They're flexible and you can easily score 4, then 6 or 8(+, sometimes) with the right draws. If you can get it working, Food Web might be the most powerful and (boosts via Painted Whitestart, Eastern Kingbird, Eastern Phoebe, etc). Bird Counter birds, as you mention, are typically in demand. Historian, as you point out, doesn't lend itself to a coherent strategy. My preferred ones here are Omnivore, Rodentologist, Falconer, in that order.

In brief — Omnivore makes crows and especially hummingbirds extra worth it and those birds work well with other bonuses, including Historian (another +2 with Anna's Hummingbird). Rodentologist & Falconer pair almost too well with each other, so you can start thinking about getting both (maybe via Spotted Owl?). In >2 players especially, Falconer is easier to interfere with via vulture/magpie, but also you get a couple of birds (Snowy Egret, Willet, Eastern Screech Owl) that qualify while only costing an invertebrate. These are bonus cards you can imagine dominating with rather than just completing. I'd say Omnivore is the 'best' in potential. Enables late-game birds like Trumpeter Swan (9+2), Wood Stork (6+bonus), King Rail (4+bonus)...all of which a crow or hummingbird helps you get, anyway.

Cartographer, Viticulturist, and Anatomist are the other flexible bonus cards worth considering against other strong bonuses if you have access to at least two matching birds to start. Seven points is better than 6, and it's only two birds to get to 3.

With the more committal bonus cards, you need to decide at the right point in the game when it makes sense to stop going for the second tier and focus elsewhere, including on acquiring other bonus cards. Same type of stuff you should be thinking about all game, just one extra dimension of it. I like simple, if I can get it.

I'm not fond of Fishery Manager — I rarely want to go all-in on the wetland, and when I do it's rarely with fish-eating birds. Prairie Manager is sometimes very nice but really only when you can score 8. That pushes you to focus on prairie-only birds, which can work out, but the birds I usually want to put there are not (hummingbirds, crows, tucking birds, etc). I would add that I also just don't like Wetland Scientist because it's not easy to put three of those birds down at all, and very hard to imagine putting five. If I pick up this bonus mid-game, I might start looking for the Great Egret or Blue Heron (to play multiple wetland birds in one turn).

[FrankJones]

Correction in the first post: Fishery manager scores 8 points for the high bonus, not 7.

My thoughts:

Omnivore has to be in the S-tier for me. Many great cards qualify, and we do not need a minimum number to start scoring. I am not sure I understand the remark, "the condition isn't the greatest (2 pts per bird)". 2 points per qualifying bird is as high as or higher than any other bonus card.

Looking only at base game bonus cards since that's what we have here on BGA:

Anatomist, cartographer, Viticulturist: 2 birds for 3 points; 4 birds for 7. Both of those give less than 2 points per bird.

Next Box Builder, Enclosure builder, platform builder, Wildlife Gardener, Photographer, Passerine Specialist, Large Bird Specialist: 4 Birds for 4 points, 6 birds for 7 points. Way less than 2 points per bird.

(The other similarly scored bonus cards all score less than or equal to the 2-point-per [qualifying bird] bonus cards.)

Yes, those tend to have higher percentages of qualifying birds, but they can also score 0 even if you get 3 qualifying birds.

The best bonus cards, for me, are the 2-point per, with the Omnivore being the best. Highest parentage of qualifying birds, and many strong birds that are "always play" even without the omnivore bonus.

Oologist is one that I find can frequently cause trouble. Sometimes an 8-bird tableau is sufficient, or, we have 9 birds but cannot get an egg on each one for various reasons. Maybe the end-round goals required stacking eggs on specific birds.

Ecologist is generally a safe 4, but getting 6 sometimes requires playing a weak bird in one of the habitats (likely the wetland or forest).

I consider Prairie manager terrible. similar percentage as omnivore, but requires them to be placed in only one habitat.

Forester and wetland scientist are weak. Difficult to get the low bonus and nearly impossible to get the high bonus.

Historian: I actually like this one. Low percentage, but a lot of good birds qualify. If we recalculate the percentages to only include birds that are worth playing, the low percentage on historian would look a lot closer to the others, I think.

Backyard birder is generally terrible in the base game. With expansions, it's better, because we can play more birds and have more time to set up and use an engine that might rely on low-point birds.

Breeding manager and visionary leader are worthless and should probably be removed. The percentage on breeding manager is barely higher than anatomist, yet scores fewer points per qualifying bird AND requires not only having the bird but also laying 4 eggs on it. I don't know how this card made it through playtesting.

Bird Feeder - generally terrible though can be useful with 3 grain-eaters in the starting hand. I did very well with it recently, hitting the high bonus before the end of round 3.

[Archisian]

For me bonuses are mostly situational rather than easily tiered. That is, many bonuses are viable but at the point where deciding "what's better" is relevant (mainly at the start of the game) it depends so much on starting hand and round goals. With a few notably weak ones as you mention: Bird Feeder (usually; it seems to require one bird too many for each tier) and Visionary Leader (almost always, especially without Wood Duck, Franklin's Gull, and Killdeer). To a lesser extent, Backyard Birder (small point birds): it is rarely worth the chase, in my experience.

My safest picks are Ecologist and Oologist. Sometimes, you don't want to balance habitats and so would strain to score six with Ecologist. Sometimes, the round goals or something else (like a Cowbird) gets in the way of Oologist. Most times, it's six points with minimal constraint on your play. Safe is good.

The next 'safest' ones are the 2-point-per-matching card bonuses if you can start with access to at least one, maybe two in the case of Food Web since those birds are rare. They're flexible and you can easily score 4, then 6 or 8(+, sometimes) with the right draws. If you can get it working, Food Web might be the most powerful and (boosts via Painted Whitestart, Eastern Kingbird, Eastern Phoebe, etc). Bird Counter birds, as you mention, are typically in demand. Historian, as you point out, doesn't lend itself to a coherent strategy. My preferred ones here are Omnivore, Rodentologist, Falconer, in that order.

In brief — Omnivore makes crows and especially hummingbirds extra worth it and those birds work well with other bonuses, including Historian (another +2 with Anna's Hummingbird). Rodentologist & Falconer pair almost too well with each other, so you can start thinking about getting both (maybe via Spotted Owl?). In >2 players especially, Falconer is easier to interfere with via vulture/magpie, but also you get a couple of birds (Snowy Egret, Willet, Eastern Screech Owl) that qualify while only costing an invertebrate. These are bonus cards you can imagine dominating with rather than just completing. I'd say Omnivore is the 'best' in potential. Enables late-game birds like Trumpeter Swan (9+2), Wood Stork (6+bonus), King Rail (4+bonus)...all of which a crow or hummingbird helps you get, anyway.

Cartographer, Viticulturist, and Anatomist are the other flexible bonus cards worth considering against other strong bonuses if you have access to at least two matching birds to start. Seven points is better than 6, and it's only two birds to get to 3.

With the more committal bonus cards, you need to decide at the right point in the game when it makes sense to stop going for the second tier and focus elsewhere, including on acquiring other bonus cards. Same type of stuff you should be thinking about all game, just one extra dimension of it. I like simple, if I can get it.

I'm not fond of Fishery Manager — I rarely want to go all-in on the wetland, and when I do it's rarely with fish-eating birds. Prairie Manager is sometimes very nice but really only when you can score 8. That pushes you to focus on prairie-only birds, which can work out, but the birds I usually want to put there are not (hummingbirds, crows, tucking birds, etc). I would add that I also just don't like Wetland Scientist because it's not easy to put three of those birds down at all, and very hard to imagine putting five. If I pick up this bonus mid-game, I might start looking for the Great Egret or Blue Heron (to play multiple wetland birds in one turn).

All very true. Bonuses are mostly situational, as you said. When I play Wingspan, I try to remain flexible and keep my options open in case something goes awry. That's why I tend to put the 2-point per bird bonus a little bit lower on the list. An automatic 2 pts per bird is nice, but for me, I tend to have bad luck on draws and not often get a hefty amount of birds that fit that criteria. I think the average I get is like 1-2 birds, so usually 4 pts. max. Pretty good and a much lower committal than bonuses like the bonuses around nest types. But with the existence of Star nests, that gives me extra flexibility to at least get the low score and hunt for another bonus that can work with those ones. As for Fishery Manager, I usually end up putting birds there that eat fish, and of course you have the Fish Crow to help out outside of the Wetland. I guess, in a way, the path to achieving is easier in my experience than some of the other ones.

But these are great insights you have and I'm going to try and incorporate more of them when I play.

[Archisian]

Correction in the first post: Fishery manager scores 8 points for the high bonus, not 7.

Ah, right. Thank you for the correction.

Omnivore has to be in the S-tier for me. Many great cards qualify, and we do not need a minimum number to start scoring. I am not sure I understand the remark, "the condition isn't the greatest (2 pts per bird)". 2 points per qualifying bird is as high as or higher than any other bonus card.

I should expand on that more. When I play, I like to try and remain flexible, unless I have cards that can help me commit to a certain bonus easily. The bonuses for 2 pts. per bird requires some commitment that you might not otherwise want in order to maximize your point potential. For example, let's say you have the Omnivore bonus card and there is a Brewer's Blackbird in the tray. Before you can draw, your opponent draws another card in the tray and the next cards that appears is an American Robin. Of course, it's situational, but most of the time, the Robin is going to get more points throughout the duration of the game than the Brewer's Blackbird, even though it fulfills the criteria.

So, yes, everything is situational, but often times with the 2 pts. per bird, if you want to maximize it, you'd potentially have to skip out on good birds. I do rank those cards highly though because they are an easy 2-4 pts. But that's the average max I get.

That's just my personal strategy though. You're a better player, so I think I'll try to take what you day about the bonuses and try that and see how it works.

Oologist is one that I find can frequently cause trouble. Sometimes an 8-bird tableau is sufficient, or, we have 9 birds but cannot get an egg on each one for various reasons. Maybe the end-round goals required stacking eggs on specific birds.

Yeah, it's rather tricky. I usually end up with around 9 birds most of the time though and I try to get to egg-laying as fast as I can, usually by the middle of the 3rd round, or at least have the Grassland developed to well I can get good points from it. So I usually end up getting the high bonus often.

Ecologist is generally a safe 4, but getting 6 sometimes requires playing a weak bird in one of the habitats (likely the wetland or forest).

Yeah, that is one downside to it. Though by the end of the game, you should have some kind of flexibility to be able to drop a better bird, right? Or do you usually only focus on egg-laying at the end?

I consider Prairie manager terrible. similar percentage as omnivore, but requires them to be placed in only one habitat.

That's pretty interesting. I guess because you like to put other kinds of birds other than those restricted to the Grassland? Probably like Bird Counter Birds, the Crows and Hummingbirds?

Forester and wetland scientist are weak. Difficult to get the low bonus and nearly impossible to get the high bonus.

Yeah, I'm not the biggest fan of them. But I've often lost to people who go hard for Forester, plus it helps them get crazy food draw to play whatever they want. I think I mostly like Forester for the fact that 3 birds gives you 4 pts compared to Prairie Manager and Wetland Scientist's 3 pts. It's easy to get if I'm really struggling with food draws, namely if I have birds with no extra abilities to draw food.

Historian: I actually like this one. Low percentage, but a lot of good birds qualify. If we recalculate the percentages to only include birds that are worth playing, the low percentage on historian would look a lot closer to the others, I think.

Which ones do you like that fit Historian? Outside of the one's that give extra bonuses cards, like Bell's Vireo and Sprague's Pipit, I like the Sparrows in the Grassland, as they give extra eggs.

Backyard birder is generally terrible in the base game. With expansions, it's better, because we can play more birds and have more time to set up and use an engine that might rely on low-point birds.

I need to play with the expansions more. I have Wingspan on Steam, but I would get crushed because the expansions introduced mechanics I didn't fully understand, so I got disencouraged.

Breeding manager and visionary leader are worthless and should probably be removed. The percentage on breeding manager is barely higher than anatomist, yet scores fewer points per qualifying bird AND requires not only having the bird but also laying 4 eggs on it. I don't know how this card made it through playtesting.

Awful cards. It really sucks whenever you draw both of them in the same draw and have to take Breeding Manager because Visionary Leader is worse in every way.

Bird Feeder - generally terrible though can be useful with 3 grain-eaters in the starting hand. I did very well with it recently, hitting the high bonus before the end of round 3.

I hit it a couple of times and it's quite the dopamine hit, haha. Mostly because a lot of good birds eat grain, and because of the high committal cost, you feel like you are never going to make it. But when you do, it's awesome.

[FrankJones]

I'm calling BS on this.

So, what are you saying; you routinely score the high bonus on your bonus cards that require 4 or 6 birds?

Because, that's unlikely for any player, let alone one who consistently concedes games because of believing the game is so far out of reach as to be unwinnable.

I was actually going to spend some time analyzing your games, maybe the 10 most recent, to see how you generally fare with your bonus cards, but it's not even possible because you barely finish half your games.

How do you even know what you typically score on your bonus cards when you so often don't even score them at all?

[Archisian]

I'm calling BS on this.

So, what are you saying; you routinely score the high bonus on your bonus cards that require 4 or 6 birds?

Because, that's unlikely for any player, let alone one who consistently concedes games because of believing the game is so far out of reach as to be unwinnable.

I was actually going to spend some time analyzing your games, maybe the 10 most recent, to see how you generally fare with your bonus cards, but it's not even possible because you barely finish half your games.

How do you even know what you typically score on your bonus cards when you so often don't even score them at all?

I'm not saying that I hit the high bonus all the time. But I tend to get cards that fulfill those requirements more often than I don't. Now, that's where things become situational, in that I need to decide to play them or not.

As far as me conceding games, points in those games and what not: you can still see what bonuses you hit even if you do concede. Indeed, there have been games where I hit a high bonus, but it didn't matter because I was so far behind that it wouldn't help me win whatsoever. So, if I played the game through the last turn, it would have been "officially" scored, but it doesn't make a difference in a loss. But this post isn't about conceding. We have other threads for that.

You can say that because I exercise the right to bow out of a game if I so choose to, my opinion doesn't mean squat. And that's okay. I would rather someone say that than dance around it trying to act "polite". I can feel the hostility whenever we have discussions on here. You can tell me that I suck, don't know jack and you don't like me. It's all good. I'm a grown man and can take it. You have permission to say what you think.

[Madlaine]

S+ tier aka no brainer :

Ecologist, Oologist.

You can't score more than 6 with those but you always will and it does not affect your gameplan. Good as starting hand, good as late draw.

S tier :

Rodentologist, Omnivore expert :

turn good cards into even better cards. Gives your hunters a virtual 2 hunting succes even though they already have very good coast/point ratio. Turns bad card into good options, like magpie, blue jay, shrike, american bittern. Safe choice in starting hand even you don't have the matching cards

A+ : everything giving 2 points per birds and Fishery Manager :

Ralatively safe choice, better 2 point than zero. Falconer beiing the best, as it gives very good points on his own and combo with others : Rodentologist, Prairie Manager Large Birds Specialist, Platform Builder.
Those bonus cards can skyrocket pretty nicely. We all have PTSD of a 16 points Phoebe/Food Web Expert hidden somewhere.

A tier :

Anatomist, Geography, Berries : easy to play, connect with good cards, will safely gives you 3 points and sometime a comfortable 7 for 4 birds.
Along with Large Birds Specialist, those are the last safe choice in starting hand.

A- :

Platform Manager, Nest bowl manager : will overuse the power of star nest birds and connect with the best cards in game. Still not easy to get 6 points.
This is the tier of the god starters, grebs, sparrows, crows, hummingbirds...

B+ :

Enclosure nest, Box Nest : the same with lesser goods cards to play with. Ofc this must be played according to your hand and round bonus.

B :

Prairie Manager : ok, its a very nice 2 points per birds and a safe 3, but you want to build a powerful prairie and need things that dont connect with, like crows, tuckers, hummingbirds. Still a nice card to get 3 points easy and by far the best of his kind.

B-

Forest Manager : no one really wants to play 5 cards in the forest without a powerful combo or round objective, but its still doable. Might slow down your gameplan though.

Wetland Scientist : wingspan vanilla does not want you to put 5 cards in your wetland, but with Fishery Manager, crazy double cranes, puffing, who knows....

C :

Photographer : so many efforts, so little reward
Visionnary Leader : not very good in vanilla wingspan since you cant seriously play with your blue line, but will still score 1 point per card in the last rounds if you failed building an egg engine.
Breeding Manager : not as bad as it might seems but if you make it rolling you probably have like 35 eggs anyway so, you won.

F and beyond :

Those cards are broken and not playable. Don't even look at them on starting hand. Sometime gives accidental 3 points

Backyard birder, Passerine Specialist, whatever the name with the seeds birds.

[FrankJones]

Ecologist is not capped at 6 points.