Birdy Call
- Board's Eye View
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
Birdy Call is a pair matching card game for 3-6 players from Identity Games International. The basic game is played with a deck of 40 bird cards: a matching male and female of each of the made-up silly species. Players have a hand of 4-7 cards, depending on the number of players, and you are all trying to find the matching partner for the birds in your hand.
What makes this game different from other pair matching games is that all the bird species have a unique mating call on the card and players have to articulate those calls while listening out for the matching call from another player. Find a pair and both players are rewarded with an egg; the game is ultimately won by the player who collects the most eggs.
There's more. You can move on from the basic game by introducing special 'eggstra' cards into the mix. A Pairot mimics the calls of another bird to trick them into thinking they're a match. When you attract another player's card in this way, only the player who played the Pairot gets to take an egg. The Peacecock has a mating call but also requires its player to splay their hand of cards like a peacock tail but held over their head. You get an egg, as does the first player to respond with the same gesture and sound - even if that other player doesn't actually have a Peacecock card in their hand. If you play a Robbin' card you can try to steal an egg from another player, but you only get to keep it if the other player fails to make an angry 'caw' sound. Finally, the Hawkward is a bird of prey that's not after a mate: play it face up to the table and all players must fall silent and place their hand of cards face down on the table; the last player to do so has to forfeit two eggs to the general supply.
If this all sounds like a very silly game it's because it is. But Birdy Call shows that the silliest of games can be a lot of fun to play. Birdy Call plays quickly (only around 10-15 minutes, even with the 'eggstra' cards and a player count of six) and it's bound to trigger a lot of laughs; making it a great little party game.
