She Invented a Board Game With Scientific Integrity. It’s Taking Off.

On a recent Saturday, Ms. Hargrave, right, auditioned a Wingspan expansion deck at a play-testing session.
"The roseate spoonbill is roughly the size of a great blue heron, with the pink plumage of a flamingo and a giant spoon-shaped bill — 'gorgeous at a distance and bizarre up close,' according to the Audubon Guide to North American birds. It is Elizabeth Hargrave’s favorite bird. 'Crazy bills get me,' she said on a recent sunny Saturday. Ms. Hargrave, a health-policy consultant in Silver Spring, Md., is an avid birder, and her favorite local winter birding spot is the Lake Artemesia Natural Area. Fringed with woods, the lake is artificial, excavated during the construction of Washington’s Green Line in the 1970s; in those days, the area was known as Lake Metro. Setting out on a trail around the lake, bird guide close at hand, Ms. Hargrave had barely set up her scope when she spotted another species of her beloved crazy-billed birds: 'Oh, fun!' She’d caught two northern shovelers, their beaks submerged, trawling for invertebrates. ..."
NY Times
Wingspan - Designed by Elizabeth Hargrave | Art by by Natalia Rojas, Ana Maria Martinez Jaramillo, and Beth Sobel

Cards from the game. The roseate spoonbill's power allows the player to draw new bonus cards; the osprey grants fish to all the players when activated.