Favourite Brown powers on Birds

[Disposable_Eagle467]

Name your 3 favourite birds with brown powers. Tell us the brown power on the bird and tell us when that power is most useful (such as first bird played in a habitat, 2nd bird played in a habitat).

[illy831]

1. Crow powers: discard egg for any food. Applicable any time in the meadow in most cases, in the wetland (on a crow) in certain occasions if you can get eggs elsewhere.

2. Tuck-and-lay: The only brown power that generates 2 points per turn. Requires and consumes extra cards, so it's most usable in a heavy wetland game but it can work in the meadow, particularly late game. If paired with tuck-and-draw, it's optimal to put this bird down first (but usually harder to do). The White-Throated Swift is the cheapest (one food cost) and most flexible (lays eggs on any bird rather than itself). Additionally it fits the Anatomist, Food Web, Photographer, and Bird Counter bonuses.

3. Tuck-and-draw: Useful in meadow, mostly, or in the forest when you still have a chance to use a lost of forest actions. Requires spare cards on hand, but once you have that, lets you save on Wetland turns and gives you access to birds in the tray whenever they pop up without spending a Wetland turn, which should normally be rare. Probably generically, some of the best meadow birds you can find, while there are better options for abilities in the wetland.

[FrankJones]

I think 2 of these would be agreed upon by all:

Tuck and draw, especially in a non wetland habitat.

Crow, especially in a non-forest habitat.

For the third one, I am not sure. With the expansion board, I would say tuck and lay egg, but without it, I seem to rarely have enough extra cards to get much use out of these birds. (And with the expansion board and the expansion birds, we get a whole new batch of ludicrous brown powers, so, this is mostly meaningless point I am making.)

so, I'll go with
3) Draw 2, keep 1. What makes this so strong is that unlike other games where it's "draw 2 and keep one of those 2", in Wingspan you can draw 2 great ones and discard some crummy card from hand or drawn earlier in the wetland activation. Thus gaining 2 strong birds from a single brown power.