Terms of use

1. What this site is

BirdingSite is a community for Indian bird photographers to share sightings, keep a personal species checklist, join photo contests, and organise tour albums. It is not a commercial marketplace — nothing is bought or sold here.

2. Your account

• You sign in with your Google account. We never see or store your Google password.
• You are responsible for what happens under your account. Keep access to your Google account secure.
• One account per person. Accounts are not transferable.
• This site is not intended for children under 13. If you are under 18, please use it only with a parent or guardian's knowledge.

3. Your photographs

• You keep the copyright. Uploading a photograph does not transfer ownership to us. Your name is credited on every photograph you share.
• By uploading, you give BirdingSite permission to display, resize and store your photograph so the site can work — in the feed, on species pages, in contests and shared previews (for example, a WhatsApp link preview).
• Only upload photographs you took yourself. Do not upload anyone else's work.
• Your original file is kept privately for your own record and is never shown to other members or made downloadable. Only a resized copy, with camera and GPS details removed, is shown publicly. See our privacy policy for detail.
• You may delete your own photographs at any time. Removing a photograph does not remove it from any contest results already published, or from another member's existing comments and votes on it.

4. Ethical photography

Every photograph and contest entry is submitted under our community guidelines: no baiting, no playback calls, no nest disturbance, and respect for private land and protected areas. Breaking these rules can cost you a contest entry, a photograph, or your membership.

5. Species identifications

Species names on this site come from the member who uploaded the photograph, sometimes with an AI-generated suggestion, and can be corrected by other members through the ID flagging system. Identifications are provided by the community, in good faith, but are not guaranteed to be accurate. See our disclaimer.

6. Contests

Entering a contest requires ticking a declaration that the photograph is your own work, taken without baiting, playback or nest disturbance. Contest results are calculated from community votes and, where a jury is assigned, jury scores, using the weighting shown on the contest itself. Decisions on entries flagged for review are made by a moderator and are final.

7. Behaviour on the site

Please do not:

• Upload photographs, captions or comments that are abusive, misleading, or not your own work.
• Share the exact location of a nest or a species marked sensitive on the site.
• Attempt to manipulate votes, for example through coordinated or reciprocal voting.
• Use the site to harass or misrepresent another member.

A moderator may hide a photograph, comment, or contest entry that breaks these terms, and an admin may suspend an account. These actions can be reversed if a mistake was made — photographs are never permanently deleted by a moderation action, only hidden.

8. Tours and operators

Tour operators listed on the site manage their own tour details and are responsible for the accuracy of what they publish. BirdingSite does not organise tours itself and is not a party to any booking or arrangement made between a member and an operator.

9. No warranty

The site is provided "as is". We try to keep it running reliably, but we do not guarantee it will always be available, error-free, or free of mistakes in community-contributed content such as species names and locations.

10. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms as the site grows. If we make a significant change, we will note the new date at the top of this page. Continuing to use the site after a change means you accept the updated terms.

11. Contact

Questions about these terms: contact@birdingsite.com