Birdwatching Notebook is meant to be a relaxing idler, but it drove me to new depths of unlock-obsessed birdmania

I love being outdoors with the excuse of watching the birds, but given it has rained every single day here since the new year rolled in, I haven't had a great opportunity to do so yet. Not only do the grey skies and constant downpours put me off, but the birds themselves have spent more time hiding anyway. I don't blame them, to be honest, but I'm certainly missing getting together with my pals for a good old-fashioned birding session. While it doesn't quite replicate the feeling of getting outside yourself, the demo of Birdwatching Notebook has come in clutch while I've been stuck indoors, so much so I've started sending it out to my non-gamer birdwatching pals too.

This sweet slice of virtual birding gives you the opportunity to admire our fine feathered friends from the comfort of your PC. You're given a balcony to decorate and watch over, and the more you decorate, the more birds will come, and my goodness is it exciting when you get a new visitor. The demo does limit you slightly, giving you one location to decorate: a balcony. When you've selected the space, you're whisked through a brisk tutorial showing how to decorate, and how you earn currency.

Basically, you need birds to visit and bring you treasures for you to sell. When you earn enough money, you can buy more items which attract even more birds to bring you more valuable trinkets to sell for more money to repeat the cycle. It's straightforward, but is something I became obsessed with embarrassingly quickly. All of a sudden I was picking up the assorted feathers my birds were dropping the second they appeared, taking sacks of goodies to the Crow to sell, and immediately using it to upgrade my space to unlock more birds.

Birdwatching notebook showing various birds on the windowsill — (Image credit: Biekka Games)

Since you can take photos of each bird to log in a guidebook, it became essential for me to find every single bird the demo has to offer. From the humble house sparrow to the more exciting Chinese Bulbul, I needed to see them all. Every single one. And take pictures of them walking, eating, flying, and generally just hanging out on my balcony. This resulted in me watching over my virtual balcony sort of like a cat watching one of those bird videos on telly. Except I didn't want to catch and eat them, I just wanted to take photos of my collection—completely normal behaviour.

You don't just have to decorate with plants and platforms either. Adding food items like a berry bush makes certain species of birds, like house sparrows, happier, and in turn attracts even more of them. What's nice is none of the birds get territorial or aggressive with one another, everyone just sort of existing in harmony. It's preferably really, as the last thing I need is the distraction of scaring certain birds off while I'm trying to work and definitely not watching over their every movement anyway.

It certainly feels rewarding, though, as you watch your once-empty balcony spring to life in a heartbeat. At no point did I ever find myself bored of the bird selection or bored of the decorations I could purchase, and that's saying something given how many hours I did spend watching my windowsill. Of course, I'd have loved to be able to bond with the birds by petting them, but sometimes it's nice to just be forced to sit back and admire them from a distance.

It's probably a good thing the demo limits you to one location, and there's only so much progress you can really make which meant I eventually did have to break my laser focus and do something else. That's not to say I haven't gone back to the demo a few times after, as well. But due to the fact Birdwatching Notebook doesn't currently have a release date, it looks like I'll have to lean on the demo a little while longer.

Kara is an evergreen writer. Having spent four years as a games journalist guiding, reviewing, or generally waffling about the weird and wonderful, she’s more than happy to tell you all about which obscure indie games she’s managed to sink hours into this week. When she’s not raising a dodo army in Ark: Survival Evolved or taking huge losses in Tekken, you’ll find her helplessly trawling the internet for the next best birdwatching game because who wants to step outside and experience the real thing when you can so easily do it from the comfort of your living room. Right?

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