About the Birds
More games to play with the cards

Ages 6 and up
2 to 6 players
Use two or more decks to add more players

1. Deal 4 cards to each player. Players should not show each other their cards, but they can look at their own.
    
2. Put the rest of the cards in a stack in the center of the playing area (the tree).
    
3. Take four cards from the tree and place them face up in a column in the middle of the playing area. This represents the trunk of the tree, and all birds are played in one of these 4 rows making a branch.
    
4. The youngest player starts first.
    
5. On your turn, you may play any bird  from your hand in one of the 4 rows as long as the number of total feathers in that row (branch) does not exceed 9.
    
6. If the sum of feathers on a branch equals 9, take all the birds except the bird you just played and put them aside for scoring at the end of the game. These are your scoring birds. Slide the last played card back to the trunk.
    
7. If a player does not score any birds or cannot play a bird proceed to step 8.
    
8. Draw a new bird into your hand at the end of your turn from the tree.
    
9. Play proceeds clockwise.
    
10. As soon as a player cannot draw a bird from the tree, all players take one final turn.
     
11. FINAL SCORING: Your final score is equal to the total number of feathers in the color for which you have the fewest cards. For example, if you have 2 blue, 3 yellow and 5 black birds your score is based on the number of feathers on the 2 blue cards.
     
12. The highest score wins. Play to 20 if you like.

ALTERNATE RULES

Right before Final Scoring:

1. All players put the birds still in their hand in front of them face down.
    
2. The player to the left of the person who played the last bird chooses one card from all the face down cards  to add to his or her scoring pile. You cannot choose a bird from other players' scoring birds.
    
3. All players choose a card in a clockwise fashion from the face down birds. The last person selects two cards from those available.
    
4. All players choose a card now in a counterclockwise fashion from the available cards. At the end of the game, each player will have selected 2 cards from the face down birds to add to their scoring birds.

Game Varient 2:

A player can collect an entire column of birds if she plays a card such that the number of feathers in that column equals 9.