The illustrators that bought Stonemier's Wingspan to life are releasing a book to get people excited about bird watching again. The Wingspan book is called Celebrating Birds and is described as an interactive field guide that aims to cover everyone from new birders to experienced ornithologists.
Getting People Excited about Avian Conservation
A big goal of Celebrating Birds appears to be getting people excited about bird conservation. Stonemaier Games said this about the game in a recent 2021 update for fans:
"With the current environmental crises and the dramatically declining bird population, Celebrating Birds raises crucial awareness, educates, encourages activism, and provides resources for these incredibly urgent ecological issues"
It appears that the main draw of the book is the ability to take the game of Wingspan into the real world. The challenge included in the book allows players to get points for the birds they've spotted, as well as filling them in on the latest ornithological background of the birds from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. So if you were into Wingspan but thought you didn't get enough exercise with it this book might be just what you're looking for.
From Wingspan to Celebrating Birds
It makes a lot of sense to translate Wingspan into a book about birds. Firstly, the art in the original board game was outstanding, and looking like it could have come from a field guide in the first place. To now see all 170 of the game's birds illustrated much larger, with an extra eleven new species thrown in for good measure is just an opportunity that anyone who played the original game won't be able to pass up.
The fact that Natalia Rojas and Ana Maria Martinez, the artists from the game, are behind Celebrating Birds, and that the book includes an IRL-version of Wingspan might make this one of the most exciting ornithology resources ever released. Bet that's a sentence you never thought you'd read at a gaming website is it?
You can pre-order Celebrating Birds right now over at Harper Collins' website with an expected release date of April 6th.
What do you think of Celebrating Birds? Will you be picking up a copy for your own birding adventures? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
