Wingspan

Wingspan is the game that made board games a hobby for people who do not play board games. Each player builds a habitat by playing bird cards, 170 of them with real species, painted illustrations and a true fact on each, and the strategy builds quietly over four rounds. It comes with a birdhouse dice tower and pastel eggs, and the whole box is a pleasure to open.

It is the Christmas gift for a couple who have a game night, the birthday present for a reader or a birder, and the game grandparents and grandchildren play together because nobody attacks anyone. Gamers already own it; everyone else should.

One to five players, about 70 minutes, and the expansions add new continents of birds for later gifts. Fifty-five dollars for the game that lives on the coffee table instead of the closet.