They have answered those things: Tunnels will be later, the zone size will probably a point in the future.
But the bird.. no, the bird has to stay. And to stay this way. I don't know who is responsible for holding this stubbhornly attitude for keeping that bird at this annoying position (it takes the most important part of the screen) but yes, it should at least be optional. A feature that can be implemented within 2 minutes. 6 lines of code..
It has a huge impact on the game. I totally understood Sips frustration... in fact.. I, without even playing.. got frustrated by it. I was thinking: !@!@$ man leave me alone. I'm building, I'm planning... ooh no not again.. Get out of the way! ..
If I want info, I will look it up in a special 'fake' internet browser in-game or something. Just put it under a button, put a counter on top of it, just like on your phone.. and leave the sound on incoming messages. But also: allow people to disable that sound, or filter messages out. PS: Make it a red 'angry-bird' when very important messages are pushed.
For me it seems that this is a decission that is pushed, whether anyone likes it or not (even internally). It's a bad , bad habbit to do such things. Its a funny idea but it takes to much 'prime time' space on the screen.