What happens when you create a gap on your board in Wingspan?

Question

With the base game, whenever you play a bird, it's final. However, with the expansions, there's options to create empty spaces on your board. What happens when you do this?

Imagine this scenario:

• play a regular bird
• play one of the "play this bird sideways so it covers to fields" birds
• play another regular bird
• play a bird that can be played on top of an existing bird, on top of the sideways bird

Now what happens?

• Do I get to pick which of the two fields the new bird goes in? Or must it be the left one?
• Do the birds to the right of it move inwards after playing it?

If they don't move in:

• can I play a new bird in the hole? (Or must I, even, when playing a bird on that row?)
• What happens when I take that action? Do I skip the hole? Do I start from the hole and skip the birds to the right? Do I resolve the action shown in the hole? (That last one seems too powerful, but you never know?)
• If I use a bird that moves when activated, does it go into the slot and become trapped, or does it go to the right-most opening?

Answer 1

there's options to create empty spaces on your board.

No. From the FAQ:

How do I play a bird on top of a sideways bird?

Some birds like the European Roller allow you to place the card sideways on your player mat, filling two spots. If you then play a bird like the Common Buzzard on top of a sideways bird, the Common Buzzard would also be placed sideways, completely covering the sideways bird.