How to play

Birdtopia is a backyard that keeps real time. You put out feeders and other things birds love, and the birds of that part of North America visit when they're ready. Here's everything you need to know.

Your yard

When you start, you pick a name and a home. Your home is one of eight habitats, the regions bird guides use for the United States: the Northeast, Midwest, Southeast, Texas and Oklahoma, Rocky Mountains, Southwest, West Coast and Alaska. Your home yard is free.

Your yard follows the real sun, moon and seasons of its region. The light turns golden in the evening, and at night the birds go to sleep. The yard tells you when they'll be back. Through the year the trees bud, bloom, change color and drop their leaves, and in winter snow may cover the lawn.

To move anything in your yard, just drag it.

Feeders and seed

Every yard starts with a tube feeder. Each bird has a favorite feeder and a favorite food, so what you put out decides who visits. The tube feeder and the seed tray start with a seed mix, and you can switch to something special: sunflower or nyjer in the tube, millet or peanuts on the tray. A bird visits much more often when its favorite food is out, and each bird's card tells you what it likes.

Feeders empty over time, however many birds come. A full one lasts about three days. When a feeder runs empty, a sign pops up on it. Tap the sign to refill it. After a few fills, a feeder needs a good clean before you can fill it again, because old food can make birds sick.

The bird bath works the same way. Its water goes down as birds drink and splash in it, and it needs a scrub every few fills. Fresh water is free, so refilling it costs nothing.

Which birds come, and when

Each habitat has its own birds, and each bird has its own months. Some stay all year. Others only pass through in spring and fall, or come just for the summer. Real counts from people's own feeders decide how often each bird visits, so common birds turn up often and a rare one is a real treat.

At first, only the common birds know about a new yard. Over the first week, and each time you add something new, word spreads and rarer birds start to find you.

The first time a new kind of bird visits, its card pops up. It tells you which bird it is, whether it's the male or the female, a few facts, and what it likes. While you watch, a bird arrives every 15 to 30 seconds, and often two share a feeder.

Money

You earn money over days, not minutes, so you never need to watch for hours.

What happens	You earn
A kind of bird visits for the first time today	$1 if it's common, $2 if it's uncommon, $5 if it's rare
A kind of bird you've never seen before visits	$5
A pair raises a family, from nest to flying away	$40 over the week
A squirrel eats at its own feeder	$1 a day

Each kind of bird pays only once a day, however many times it comes back. So the more kinds of bird you bring in, the more you earn. Food and cleaning cost a little, and it takes a few weeks to buy everything in the store.

The store

The store has everything for your yard, and you can sort it by price or by name. Each item's card tells you which birds it brings, and it can read itself aloud.

• More feeders: a seed tray, a suet feeder and a hummingbird feeder, each with its own birds.
• A bird bath, where robins and other birds come to drink and splash. Keep it topped up with fresh water.
• A birdhouse, where bluebirds and wrens can raise a family, and nesting material to help a pair decide to stay.
• A shrub, a native plant picked for your region, where birds can hide and rest.
• An apple tree. You plant it small, it grows through the seasons, and one day it grows apples.
• A pond, the biggest thing in the store, for ducks and herons.
• A squirrel feeder and baffles, to keep squirrels busy. See below.

You can put away anything except the shrub and the apple tree, and bring it back later just as you left it. For example, you can keep the hummingbird feeder in the shed for the winter.

Squirrels

Now and then a squirrel comes and helps itself to the birds' seed. A baffle on a feeder's pole sends it sliding back down. A squirrel feeder full of corn keeps it busy most of the time, though not always.

Nests

In spring, a pair of birds you know may move into the fork of your tree or your birdhouse. The next time you visit in daylight, you can watch them court and build their nest. They carry in nesting material, twigs from the shrub or grass from the lawn. A day later there are eggs. Three days after that the chicks hatch, and three days later the young birds fly away. Tap the nest's sign to peek inside.

Surprise visitors

Not every visitor is a bird. Rabbits hop across the lawn by day, and jackrabbits do in the dry West. Every few days something rarer comes by: a raccoon or a fox at night, a deer when your apple tree has apples, and, rarest of all, an owl in the tree after dark. Which animals you see depends on your habitat. Bird Sightings keeps count of them all.

Bird Sightings, search and news

Bird Sightings lists every kind of bird you've seen, how many times you've seen it, and how many kinds visited today. Open a bird to see its card and write your own notes.

Search finds any bird in the game, even ones you haven't seen yet. It tells you what brings the bird to your yard and when it's around.

News, behind the bell, keeps track of everything that happens: new birds, empty feeders, nests, visitors, and what you missed while you were away.

While you're away

Your yard keeps going when the game is closed. The birds you already know keep visiting in daylight, each paying once a day, and the feeders slowly empty. When you come back, a card tells you who stopped by. The game counts up to three days of time away. After that, your yard waits for you. A brand-new kind of bird only ever comes when you're there to see it.

If you like, the game can send you a notification while you're away when a nest's eggs are laid, its chicks hatch or its young fly, or when a feeder runs empty. Notifications never come between 9 p.m. and 8 a.m., and you can turn each kind off in Settings. The game never nags you to come back.

More yards

The pill at the top left shows which yard you're in and opens the Yards screen. You can visit any other habitat free for a day, until midnight there, and the game keeps that yard just as you left it. One purchase opens every habitat in North America for good, with as many yards as you like, and Family Sharing shares it with your family. Each yard has its own money, feeders and birds, and every yard keeps going while you're in another.

Weather and the sky

Your yard gets the real weather of its region from Apple Weather, and you can see it: gray skies when it's cloudy, rain when it rains, snow when it snows. In a hard frost the pond freezes, and the ducks stay away until it thaws. If the game can't get the weather, it uses the usual weather for that time of year. Tap the weather to see more. At night you see the real moon, just as full as it is tonight.

Narrators and sound

Every card in the game has a speaker button. Two narrators, Archie and Skye, read every word, and you pick one in Settings. Your yard has its own sounds too: birdsong by day, crickets at night and rain when it rains. They go quiet while the narrator reads.