A 14-year-old in Colombia\u2019s Quind\u00edo department has designed a board game that does not try to compete with mobile apps. Instead, it tries to pull kids away from screens and push them toward the birds they can already hear outside their windows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an interview with Caracol Radio, Andr\u00e9s Felipe Navarro, known on social media as \u201cPipe corre y vuela,\u201d said his game \u201cVolando por los Andes\u201d was built to help children, teens, and adults learn about local birds and the threats they face, then practice simple actions to protect them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Navarro told Caracol Radio his interest in birds took off after meeting a classmate, Alejandro Williams, who could identify species just by their songs. From there, he started birdwatching and says he has spotted \u201cmore than 500\u201d and \u201calmost 600\u201d birds across Quind\u00edo and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That curiosity turned into product design. He spent about a year sketching, testing ideas, and rebuilding the rules so the game stayed fun while still teaching, something he says ordinary talks could not always deliver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cVolando por los Andes\u201d borrows familiar mechanics from classic board games like Monopoly and Snakes and Ladders, then swaps generic tokens for birds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Players choose from six Andean species, including the Andean condor, torrent duck, yellow-eared parrot, multicolored tanager, and the \u201cgallito de roca,\u201d turning each move into a small prompt to talk about habitats and behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When friends suggested he should make a video game, Navarro went the other way. He argued that a board game is easier to use in rural schools, and that he wants kids to stop being \u201cstuck to the cellphone\u201d and rediscover the habit of gathering around a table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is not just nostalgia. A 2023 systematic review in Frontiers in Psychology<\/a> mapped research on analog game-based learning and found a broad body of studies exploring how tabletop games can support learning in classroom settings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is easy to miss how \u201clow-tech\u201d can be a strategic advantage. A physical game does not need accounts, updates, or Wi-Fi, and it creates a built-in social experience that can turn learning into something closer to a family ritual than a homework assignment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Colombia is not short on birds, and that is part of the business story. BirdLife DataZone<\/a> lists 1,873 bird species for Colombia, including 95 endemic species, numbers that help explain why the country is a global magnet for birders and biodiversity research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That biodiversity is increasingly visible in citizen science and tourism campaigns. In a 2024 press release, ProColombia<\/a> highlighted Colombia\u2019s performance in the Global Big Day, reporting 1,558 species recorded in a single day, a snapshot of how much bird knowledge already lives in local communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Quind\u00edo itself sits inside that broader advantage. A peer-reviewed checklist published in Check List<\/a> documented at least 543 bird species in the department, which helps explain why the region can support both education projects and eco-tourism at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Navarro\u2019s game is not only about naming birds. He builds \u201cbad squares\u201d into the route where birds hit windows after mistaking reflections for forest, or where they are trapped and kept in cages because people like hearing them sing nearby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the radio interview, he used a blunt rule of thumb, saying 80% of birds that collide with windows die. Scientists debate the exact fatality rate by species and setting, but the direction of travel is clear \u2013 collisions are not a minor problem, especially when glass-heavy design spreads into more places.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One 2024 study in PLOS ONE<\/a> looked at birds injured by building collisions and found that only about 40% survived even after receiving rehabilitation care. That kind of number lands differently once you picture the ordinary places it can happen, an office lobby, a glass balcony, or even a bright patio door at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Navarro told Caracol Radio the game sells for 60,000 Colombian pesos, which works out to about $16.63<\/strong> at Colombia\u2019s representative market<\/a> exchange rate of 3,608.1 pesos per $1 on April 14, 2026. He stressed that the point is not personal profit, but using the money to travel to rural schools and run workshops where kids can learn by playing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Distribution, for now, is also simple. He asks interested buyers to message him through Instagram or TikTok under the \u201cPipe corre y vuela\u201d name, a reminder that social media is not only a distraction for teens \u2013 it is also a storefront.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBirds as local capital<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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