E Lele!: Hawaiian Seabird Card Game 2026

E Lele! is a Hawaiian seabird conservation card game for 3–8 players. The game centers on 20 native Hawaiian seabird species — from the Mōlī (Laysan Albatross) to the ʻUaʻu (Hawaiian Petrel) — each represented with its Hawaiian name alongside real ecological relationships between birds, habitats, threats, and protections drawn from actual conservation science.

"E Lele" means "go fly" in Hawaiian language, and gameplay is built on a Go Fish foundation: players ask each other for cards, trying to collect matching bird pairs (female and male) and match them with the correct nesting habitat to form a colony. Each habitat can only hold multiple colonies up to a set limit, so players have to think about where to place their birds as habitats fill up.

Layered on top of that simple ask-and-collect structure is a "take that" element with Threat cards, which players can play against an opponent's colony to put it at risk; and Protection cards, which counter a specific Threat to defend a colony already in play — adding a light push-and-pull between growing your own colonies and disrupting other players'.

Bird pairs are worth points based on the species' real-world conservation status — least concern birds are worth 1 point, while species that are threatened or endangered are worth up to 4 points. The game ends once the draw pile is exhausted and a final round lets players play out any remaining Protection cards before scoring. The player with the most points from their surviving bird colonies wins.

Alternate rules for Solitaire and Concentration styles of play allow the game to be played by 1 or 2 players.

—description from the designer