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In this guide
Wingspan is a competitive, card-driven engine builder from designer Elizabeth Hargrave and publisher Stonemaier Games. Each player runs a wildlife preserve with three habitats, plays bird cards into those rows, and uses the habitat actions to gather food, lay eggs and draw more birds. The game runs four rounds with a shrinking number of actions per round, and the highest total from birds, eggs, bonus cards and round goals wins. It took the Kennerspiel des Jahres in 2019, and Stonemaier's Canadian store now sells four regional expansions and a Pocket card version alongside it.
This piece covers the base game only, as sold on Stonemaier's dedicated Canada store at a $90 regular price in Canadian dollars, currently marked down to $76, SKU STM910. The publisher states that this printing is the current version and includes the swift-start pack, a guided first game. The $90 list price is worth setting against the $28 Wingspan Pocket on the same store: that is a different, smaller game, but it shows what the full box costs for the longer, heavier game: the store lists Pocket at 25 to 35 minutes and light weight, against 40 to 70 and medium here.
Our verdict
Wingspan is worth its $90 list price for a household that likes quiet, puzzle-like play and will table it a few times; the $76 mark is a bonus. This printing covers group nights and solo evenings.
- A good fit for
- Groups of two, three or four adults or teens who enjoy building a small engine over four rounds, solo players who want a competent automated opponent, and gift buyers who need something that looks good on a shelf and still gets played.
- We would skip it if
- You want a loud, fast party game, you play mostly with five people and short attention spans, or you only want the theme and would be happy with the smaller Wingspan Pocket card game at $28.
Reasons to consider it
- Component count is generous for the price: 170 unique bird cards, 75 egg miniatures, 103 food tokens, custom wooden dice and a birdfeeder dice tower are all in the base box
- Stonemaier's Purchase Promise covers free replacement parts through an online form, plus a 20-day price guarantee and rules help in its forums
- Plays from one to five with the Automa deck included, so the solo mode is not an add-on
The compromises
- The Canadian store page lists 40 to 70 minutes in its spec block and 40 to 90 in the description; a first game with new players lands at the long end
- English-language product only when bought direct from Stonemaier; other languages go through separate localization partners
- The Canadian store ships from a Canadian fulfillment center, but its header currently warns that a warehouse transfer may stretch some orders to three weeks (normally seven days; the shipping page says 10), and the refund policy is a single line about order errors, so it suits planned purchases better than last-minute gifts
What we have not verified: The Canadian store page does not print a recommended minimum age, so the age figure is not established here from the publisher. Interaction between players is light, which some groups read as relaxing and others as solitaire.
The things in this guide
A closer look at the products, who they may suit, and what to check before buying.
Wingspan (base game, current printing with swift-start pack)
The Canadian store carries the version with the swift-start pack, charges a flat $10 for shipping, ships from a fulfillment center in Canada and backs the copy with its free replacement parts form. It lists at $90 and was marked $76 as this was written; the verdict does not depend on the lower mark.
Before you buy: Orders are limited to four copies, the store header currently warns of up to three weeks for some orders during a warehouse transfer, and the refund policy only covers orders placed in error, so it is not a same-week gift solution.
Price checked October 16, 2026. Retailer prices can change.What is in the box
The Canadian store page itemizes the contents: 170 unique bird cards and 26 bonus cards at 57 by 87 mm, 16 Automa cards for solo play, 103 food tokens, 75 egg miniatures, five custom wooden dice, five player mats, one birdfeeder dice tower, a two-piece Game Trayz custom tray, a goal mat with eight goal tiles, a first-player token, 40 action cubes (eight per player), a 50-sheet scorepad and three rulebooks covering the core rules, the Automa and an appendix.
The store's variant record carries a 2.4 kg shipping weight, which fits a full-size square box rather than a compact one. The page does not print the box dimensions, so check shelf space before buying if you are tight on room; five player mats and a goal mat also want a dining table, not a coffee table.
How it plays and how long it takes
Every turn is one of four actions: play a bird into a habitat by paying its food and egg cost, gain food from the dice in the birdfeeder tower, lay eggs on your birds, or draw bird cards. Each action also triggers the powers of birds already sitting in that row, so a forest full of food-gathering birds turns the gain-food action into a small combo. Round goals and private bonus cards push you toward particular habitats or bird types, and the game ends after four rounds, which forces you to stop building and start scoring.
The store's spec block lists 1 to 5 players, a 5-minute setup and a game length of 40 to 70 minutes, while the description on the same page says 40 to 90 minutes. The longer figure is the one to budget for with newcomers, because card powers are read aloud and checked. The swift-start pack included in this printing is the publisher's answer to that learning curve, a guided first game. Stonemaier rates the game as medium weight.
Player count and the solo mode
The 16-card Automa deck is part of the base box, not an expansion, and it comes with its own rulebook. The page lists solo play as part of the 1 to 5 player range, so a household with one keen player and no regular opponent still gets use out of the $90 list price. That is what separates a game that gets played from one that waits for guests.
At the top end, five players share one birdfeeder and one bonus-card deck, and each player's turns are mostly independent, so waiting time grows in a straight line with head count. Five mats plus the goal mat take real table space. Two and three feel like the intended count; five is supported but slower.
Buying direct, shipping and replacement parts
Stonemaier runs a dedicated Canada store, and its shipping page says orders to Canadian customers ship from a fulfillment center in Canada, with region-specific taxes charged when necessary. Shipping is a flat $10, free on orders over $160, or over $128 for members of its paid Champions program, who also save 20 percent on every order. The shipping page promises dispatch within 10 days unless the store header says otherwise, and the header on the day of checking did: a warehouse transfer may take some orders up to three weeks. The quantity selector stops at four copies. At the $90 list price plus $10, a single copy comes to $100; at the current $76 mark it is $86, both before any taxes the checkout adds.
The refund policy is a single line asking buyers to email quickly if an order was placed in error, so casual returns are not part of how this store operates. The Purchase Promise beside the price has three parts: a 20-day price guarantee, free replacement parts and rule support in the publisher's forums. The replacement-parts page sends owners of English-language copies to an online form and asks you to empty every inner bag before reporting something missing. Its list of regions that no longer get spare parts shipped directly does not include Canada. A dented box is handled as a whole-game swap in which you send the original to a reviewer with a prepaid label.
When to skip it
Skip Wingspan if your group wants direct conflict or table talk. The design has almost no take-that; the closest thing to interaction is racing for a round goal or a bird another player wanted from the display. Stonemaier itself suggests Terraforming Mars and Gizmos fans may enjoy it, but players who like those games for trading and blocking will find Wingspan quiet to the point of feeling solitary. It also suits a table badly that needs a game under 30 minutes, since even the 40-minute floor is the fast end.
Two smaller reasons to hold off: language and appetite for the theme alone. The Canadian store sells an English-language product and points other languages to localization partners, so a household that reads primarily in another language should buy from the partner. And if the appeal is the birds, the $28 Wingspan Pocket card game on the same store gets there for much less than $90. It is a standalone small-box game with its own birds, not compatible with the base game's cards, and the store lists it for one to five players too.
How we put this together
Built from the product pages and listings below, without test scores or results we have not measured. Specifications and prices change, so check the original page for the exact model, current price, delivery, and returns.
- Stonemaier Games Canada store: Wingspan product page (opens in a new tab)
- Stonemaier Games Canada store: Wingspan product JSON (opens in a new tab)
- Stonemaier Games Canada store: Shipping Information (opens in a new tab)
- Stonemaier Games: Wingspan game page (opens in a new tab)
- Stonemaier Games: Replacement Parts (opens in a new tab)
- Stonemaier Games Canada store: Refund policy (opens in a new tab)
