Wingspan is a game in which players are researchers and bird-watchers with the goal of seeking out the best birds to attract to their wildlife reserves. The winner is the person with the most points after four rounds and yet, because players’ boards change so often during gameplay, it’s never obvious who is winning. Because of this, Wingspan has been described as a relaxing experience with players enjoying the relative serenity of gameplay.

Wingspan's designer, Elizabeth Hargrave, was working as a health policy analyst when she rediscovered her childhood enjoyment of board games. Disillusioned that so many of the games on the market were themed around colonisation or destruction of opponents, Hargrave decided to create a different kind of game, based on what she cared about - birds. Hargrave did a huge amount of research to ensure the bird behaviour, nest type, and habitats of the original 170 North American birds she chose to represent were all true to life - consulting field guides and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s eBird database to inform the game’s mechanics and scoring.

Wingpsan was incredibly successful upon release in 2019, coinciding with a boost to board games sales caused by the Covid-19 lockdowns, which gave some people more time for tabletop game play at home.