Little Aviary is a cozy idle bird collector designed to occupy the bottom of your screen while you do other things. Its birds can fly around the screen and perch on top of other windows, giving the game a desktop-companion format rather than demanding your full attention. You can zoom the game in or out and move it up or down to keep it out of the way.
The collection loop centers on hatching birds, discovering species and color variants, then selling birds and breeding your best ones to maximize profit. The game also invites you to build and decorate an aviary, with decorations offering places for birds to perch. As you discover species, you can learn fun facts about them, so collecting is paired with a small natural-history angle.
Areas add another layer to the setup: the beach, for example, gives bonuses to sea birds. The result is a relaxed mix of collecting, breeding, decorating and arranging a home for birds, all in a window that can share space with other tasks.