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Hi all,

I see the option on here to exclude the Swift Start Birds, question is: why would one exclude them? They are not overpowered or do not disrupt the game, any nuance I am missing?

Kind regards

chiepChiep91 wrote: ↑26 June 2026, 16:14 Hi all,

I see the option on here to exclude the Swift Start Birds, question is: why would one exclude them? They are not overpowered or do not disrupt the game, any nuance I am missing?

Kind regards

A good place to start with this question is a search for "swift" in topic titles specifically in the Wingspan sub-forum.

Swift Starter Pack
Swift start birds

Some of those birds are very powerful, like American Redstart. It only costs 2 food, is worth 4 pts, and allows you to get an extra food from the feeder of any type. That ability is huge.

Others that are very strong are the Red-Breasted Merganser. It's Ruddy Duck and Pied-Billed Grebe, but is worth 3 pts instead of 0. The Brant can be powerful if the birds in the tray are good. Canvasback is good because it connects to a lot of bonuses and is a star nest. Scaled Quail is a cheap bird you can drop immediately in the grassland if you get it in the beginning.

These cards are meant to make learning the game a lot easier for beginners and gives them good cards so they don't get pummeled by a bad starting hand. The problem is that if a player gets a few of these in their opening hand, then it becomes very difficult to overcome them, especially with Painted Whitestart (Or any bird that gives a food on activation) and American Redstart. They'll be able to get whatever food they want and basically can drop whatever food they want.

There are also players who got the game when it originally didn't have those cards and prefer to play the vanilla version.

There is no reason to exclude them. The game designer has said these birds should be dealt into the deck.

I will include them when i got them for free in my physical game.

They're all good birds and not technically part of the original game so i think it makes sense they're a separate option

Also they're much less a problem than the 4 powerful birds + wood duck (the later being less of a problem without expansions , probably explaining why it's a separate option as well (but still more powerful than any of the Swift Start cards and very close to the powerful birds in terms of power (specially in round 1 and 2))

The game designer did say they should be included in the base-game deck.

They are part of the original game. The only reason they are part of a separate category is their usefulness in helping people in their first game, similar to starting hands in Race For the Galaxy. Those cards are still part of the standard deck.

When you buy the Wingspan physical game, those birds are included in the box. It's not as though they require a separate voluntary purchase.