Early Bird plays like a kind of puzzle platformer, you have a limited number of swipes to guide your early bird to the worm while avoiding hazards and making use of the environment. There are nearly 100 levels to complete over a series of different worlds that gradually increase in challenge and bring more objects into the environment.
The controls look very simple but getting much precision with the swiping gestures can be more than a little tricky to get right, but fortunately the time it takes to restart a level after a mistake is kept reasonably brief. Later levels get quite challenging but rarely become more frustrating than they are fun with its cheerful music and art, right down to the sarcastic expression on the worm.