Bingo! It’s a migratory bird!
Feel like there’s nothing to do in Singapore?
Birdwatching may not be the first activity that comes to mind when you look at a dense urban city like Singapore – but, as Singapore’s growing birding community can attest, the tree-lined streets and nature reserves are home to countless flocks of beautiful birds!
As the creators of Fly-A-Way, we want to encourage more people to go outside and try to get to know the wonderful birds that live among us!
To make this even more fun, our designers have created a beautiful bingo sheet of some of the migratory birds that you can see in Singapore that you can use to keep track of the birds you’ve seen! (Scroll down to check it out!) We’ll create a personalised bingo card for one lucky birder who’s managed to complete the bingo sheet.
We’ll also give tips on local birding sites where you can spot migratory birds, and how we tried to play a part in saving our feathered friends from extinction through Fly-A-Way!
Why We Made the Bird Game
Empathy is an important aspect of wildlife conservation.
The hope is that, when you learn more about certain animals – how they look, what they eat, where they stay or how they interact with and love each other – you’re more likely to develop empathy for them, and be invested in their survival.
It’s hard to have your heart moved by a cute animal and then be okay with it dying. It’s even harder to accept that, due to certain preventable practices, this animal’s entire existence is being threatened with extinction.
Fowl Play and Wing It cards showcase threats that migratory birds face and ways that humankind can mitigate them!
Fly-A-Way is as much about the trials of bird migration as it is about what we as humans can do to help them. Many of the decisions you make while playing the game are about what humankind can do to address the dangers that befall these birds during their migratory journeys. These include man-made threats such as poaching, pollution and unsustainable farming.
It’s part of why we went through the labour-intensive process of illustrating 48 different bird species (thanks to our amazing illustrators, Key and Iris!) and including fun bird facts for each of them in Fly-A-Way. Other than increasing the game’s replayability (each bird has its own bird power!), we wanted players to learn about a wide variety of birds differing in habitat, size, conservation status and migratory routes.
Some of the bird cards from Fly-A-Way!
As a Singaporean company, it was important that we represented birds close to home, especially as many of these Asian migratory birds hadn't been represented in games prior to Fly-A-Way's release. We wanted our friends, family and communities to be able to go outside and start looking out for the birds they rescued in the game, and for international audiences to learn more about Asia’s wonderful birds.
For this, we were grateful to have the expertise of ornithologist (i.e., bird scientist) Dr Yong Ding Li from BirdLife International Asia (BirdLife), part of the largest conservation partnership in the world. Through careful consultation and research with BirdLife, we could ensure that a diverse range of birds could be represented while capturing all their delightful quirks!
Bird Bingo!
We think Fly-A-Way is a great introduction to migratory birds in the region and their conservation, but we hope that it’s just the beginning of your relationship with our planet’s birdlife!
Click on the image to download your very own Singapore Migratory Bird Bingo sheet!
This sheet showcases the migratory birds featured in Fly-A-Way that can be spotted in Singapore, with illustrations from the game. The red stars in the corners indicate Mega Star Birds – rare birds that will have the country’s birders flocking towards them upon news of a sighting!
We want to celebrate the practice of going out and spotting these birds, as we think these personal experiences are important for fostering empathy and keeping people invested in bird conservation.
As migration season draws to a close, we hope that filling out this bingo sheet will help you take stock of all the wonderful birds you’ve seen over the past few months! You can make this a lifetime list, or even use it to track how migration season has differed over various years.
If you’ve completed the entire sheet, email us at content@playlogue.sg with your bird photos by 31 March 2023 and we’ll select one person’s photos to compile into your very own personalised bingo sheet! You can use your custom bird bingo sheet for the next migration season, or show it off to your friends!
If you’re keen, we’ll share your photos with credit on our platforms to show our international audience the amazing migratory birds that fly through our island! You can also tag us at @playlogue.sg on our Facebook and Instagram using the hashtag #sgmigratorybirdbingo.
For bird lovers who aren’t photographers, you can download the sheet and tick the corner of the birds you’ve spotted, or put a little heart around their faces. <3
Where can I find these birds?
Here are some of the birding sites that are especially popular for spotting migratory birds:
Pasir Ris Park
Sungei Buloh
Pulau Ubin
Kranji Mudflats
Henderson Bridge
Marina East Drive
Coney Island
Bukit Timah Hill
Lorong Halus
As a beginner, the most effective way to spot birds while you’re there is approaching a group of birders for advice. You can usually identify them through their huge cameras, binoculars and earth-toned attire, which helps them blend into the natural surroundings so that they don’t scare away any birds. Birders are a friendly and helpful bunch! Just be careful to avoid blasting loud music on the trail or doing anything that might disturb the wildlife.
You can find more tips for beginner birders in this series of graphics we created for the Singapore Bird Race 2021!
Joining Facebook interest groups can also help you learn more about Singapore’s birdlife.
Bird Sightings is a group of passionate and talented photographers who capture beautiful photos of Singapore’s birds! It’s also a great place to get current information about rare birds that have been spotted around the island.
We hope we’ve encouraged you to get to know some of the wonderful wildlife that we share this island with! There’s nothing like the thrill of seeing a new bird species for the first time, and we hope you’ll get to experience it too.
