15 Most Valuable Bird Cards

Battle Screech| Illustrated by Anastasia Ovchinnikova

Birds have been around since the dawn of Magic, with a grand total of two populating the game's first set, Alpha. While it didn't become a well-supported typal clan until 2002’s Onslaught block, Bird-enjoyers have been eating/feeding well of late with both 2024’s Bloomburrow and 2025’s Final Fantasy boasting bunches of feathery brethren between them.

But what are the most valuable Birds across Magic’s vast history? Do the beloved first Birds from Alpha make the list? Spread your wings, read on, and find out.

Honorable Mention: Traveling Chocobo (Serialized Golden Textless Card) – Final Fantasy

As arguably the second-rarest card of all time behind only The Lord of the Rings’ serialized 1/1 The One Ring, only 77 of these Chocobos were printed, and they are worth anywhere from $25,000 to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

15. Storm Crow (Foil) – Seventh Edition

Market Price: $26.64

Kicking off the list is one of the most powerful creatures in Magic history, a 1/2 flyer for that first debuted in Alliances. While this card has turned into something of a meme over the years, this version of everyone’s favorite corvid hails from Seventh Edition and boasts a beautiful retro frame foil finish with a black border. What’s not to—CAW!

14. Breena, the Demagogue (Extended Art) – Commander 2021

Market Price: $26.73

This Commander classic is an amazing political tool, as it will often stick around for a good long while, letting you grow your creatures and spread card advantage to your foes until you’re ready to swing in and end the game in one fell swoop (I know, it’s a bird pun, sue me).

13. Shabraz, the Skyshark – The List

Market Price: $27.10

A flying Shark?! Believe it! While this 3/3 flyer has only seen two printings in its lifetime, this copy, from The List, is worth nearly $25 more than its original printing found in Commander 2020.

While this might smack a bit of market manipulation, this card partners with Brallin, Skyshark Rider and any decks piloting both of them will want to be “looting” constantly to gain the benefits of their triggers and help each creature grow quickly.

12. Maha, Its Feathers Night (Borderless Field Notes Card) – Bloomburrow

Market Price: $34.14

One of the Calamity Beasts from the beloved Bloomburrow set, this winged terror (aka The Great-Night Owl) boasts a number of pricey cards, but it’s the Field Notes version that takes the cake (or seed) here.

A 6/5 with flying and trample used to cost (looking at you Spirit of the Night), but this 2024 Bird only costs with built-in protection via its ward ability. Beyond that, being able to kill of your opponents’ creatures with a Nausea is pretty nifty, too.

11. Aven Mindcensor (Invocations Bonus Sheet) – Amonkhet

Market Price: $36.26

A nasty little Birdo that thwarts any foe's plans to search their library via its ability to be played at instant speed. Opponent cast a Vampiric Tutor? Get Mindcensored! Fetch land just cracked? It’s Mindcensor time!

An eminently annoying and effective Stax piece, this version boasts the utterly stunning Amonkhet Invocations frame and one-off artwork from Jose Cabrera. Simply gorgeous.

10. Wan Shi Tong, Librarian (Borderless Field Notes Card) – Avatar: The Last Airbender

Market Price: 63.30

Owl-like Birds in Magic have long been portrayed as intelligent, curious, and well-read creatures. Just look at the first two Owl Birds ever printed in the game: Owl Familiar from 1997’s Portal and Sage Owl from the same year’s Weatherlight. Owls simply scream “book smart.” Or do they hoot it?

Either way, Owl-style Birds achieved mythic rare bomb status in Avatar: The Last Airbender thanks to this Hydroid Krasis-esque -costed Bird Spirit with flash, flying, and vigilance that nets you cards upon it entering as well as whenever your foes search their library. An incredible card, and a prime example of the joys/pitfalls of power creep.

9. Choco, Seeker of Paradise (Borderless Chocobo Track Foil Card) – Final Fantasy

Market Price: $77.53

Birds didn’t receive a legendary creature until 2000’s Invasion unveiled Kangee, Aerie Keeper. Then, Odyssey block saw three white Bird officers released in the form of Lieutenant Kirtar, Major Teroh, and Commander Eesha.

Now, in 2025, Final Fantasy debuted new tech for Bird lovers in the form of this extremely powerful landfall-enhanced Bird commander in Bant colors (). This version of Choco could only be found in the hard-to-find Chocobo Bundle.

8. Kastral, the Windcrested (Japanese Raised Foil Anime Card) – Bloomburrow

Market Price: $92.04

Birds have seen a notable uptick in legendary creatures in recent years, and this Bloomburrow Azorius (m]w u[/m]) Birdo serves as an extremely strong Bird typal-enabler that can either grow your whole team, recur a Bird into play from your 'yard or cheat one into play from your hand, or simply draw you a card. As Steve Miller said: “I want to fly like this Kastral!”

7. Zinnia, Valley's Voice (Japanese Raised Foil Anime Card) – Bloomburrow Commander

Market Price: $153.01

The exclusive-to-Bloomburrow offspring ability nets you 1/1 copies of creature cards that feature the keyword, which can lead to some nutso shenanigans, per Commander Spellbook.

Beyond those token copies boasting some of the cutest artwork in Magic history, this Bird Bard creature gives all your creature spells the offspring keyword, which means that you can get a copy of any creature spell in your deck, including legendaries!

6. Oracle of the Alpha – Mystery Booster 2

Market Price: $155.00

It’s pretty surprising to learn that a card that’s not legal in any format (note that funky acorn logo at the bottom indicating that fact) is worth over $150 on the secondary market, but the fact that this casual-only card conjures a copy of the Power Nine into your deck for free means that it was always going to be highly sought after.

Now, if only this card (which is also one of the most valuable Wizard cards ever) literally conjured some of the most valuable cards in Magic history into your possession…

5. Rhoc of Kher Ridges – Alpha

Market Price: $168.00

The first of two Alpha cards herein, a 3/3 flyer for four mana () used to be the pinnacle of value in Magic, seeing as vanilla 3/3 were also often found for four mana.

Of course, now four mana nets you something insanely broken, like Ouroboroid, Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might, Bloodletter of Aclazotz, or Roaming Throne. C’est la vie.

4. Yorion, Sky Nomad (Serialized Multiverse Legends) – March of the Machine

Market Price: $377.50

If you ascertain one takeaway from these lists, let it be this: Serialized cards = Big $$$.

This strikingly illustrated version of every flicker/blink player’s favorite Bird Serpent, originally found in Ikoria: Lair of the Behemoths, had only 500 copies printed. That manufactured scarcity leads to a price point close to $400 in today’s market.

3. Traveling Chocobo (Borderless Blue Neon Ink) – Final Fantasy

Market Price: $1,979.40

Final Fantasy boasted a plethora of top-dollar Bird cards, but none can compare to the various renditions of the borderless Traveling Chocobo.

In particular, Collector Boosters of the set could contain the eminently scarce Neon Ink versions, which could be found in yellow, green, pink, and blue, which is the most valuable version among them.

2. Birds of Paradise – Alpha

Market Price: $2,150.00 (via PriceCharting)

It’s rare than an original creature card from Magic’s first set doesn’t top one of these lists, so you know the #1 card is sure to be something eminently special.

Still, though, over $2,000 for a 0/1 creature with flying is still a pretty spectacular price point befitting a card that is truly synonymous with the type. As many a Magic player has said ad infinitum: “Bolt the Bird.”

1. Traveling Chocobo (Borderless Japanese Black Neon Ink) – Final Fantasy

Market Price: $5,950.00

While this card does technically break my self-imposed rule of not including duplicates, this Bird was only printed in Japanese and features an exceedingly rare foiling method only found previously in Phyrexia: All Will Be One.

Despite only being printed in Japanese, this card could be found in any language of Final Fantasy Collector Booster, though its scarcity in the set was second only to the 77 total copies of the serialized Golden Chocobo. A stunning card befitting its nearly $6,000 price tag.

Bird Up!

And that’s the word; Bird is the word. I hope you enjoyed me pecking out a list of the most valuable Bird cards and keep your beaks here for more finance-related Magic content.