Data & photo credits

Social Bird combines several kinds of data and imagery. Here's what each is, and how it's licensed.

Regional bird catalogs vs. live sightings — two different things

Social Bird shows two kinds of bird information, and we keep them clearly separate:

  • "Birds recorded in [region]" — a historical checklist. These regional species lists are derived from GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility) occurrence records — evidence that a species has been recorded in a region over time. It is not a forecast of what's near you today, and not a real-time report.
  • Community sightings — real, recent reports. Sightings and posts in the feed and on the map are created by Social Bird members, in real time. These are separate from the historical regional catalog.
Historical regional catalogs. Reviewed catalogs are available for all 50 US states, the US overall, and the United Kingdom. They use archived GBIF API responses with recorded provenance and licensing checks. A regional record is evidence of past occurrence, not a guarantee of current presence. We only use occurrence data under commercial-friendly licenses (CC0 and CC BY); non-commercial and no-derivatives data is excluded.

Species reference photos

Where we show a reference photo for a species (separate from members' own sighting photos), those images come from openly licensed sources under CC0 / public domain or CC BY licenses, and we retain the photographer and license information for each. Attribution is shown with the image where reference photos are displayed.

Maps

Maps are powered by Mapbox, © Mapbox and © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Brand & marketing artwork

The bird illustrations used for Social Bird's branding, marketing, and this website — including the hero cardinal — are original artwork created for Social Bird in a photographic style. They are brand artwork, not photographs of real sightings, and are not community content.

Members' sighting photos

Photos attached to sightings and posts belong to the Social Bird members who took them. Eligible public sighting photos can also rotate onto species cards throughout the app, with photographer attribution, including for the photographer viewing their own image. They are not used for marketing. Please respect other members' photos and don't reuse them without permission.

Questions about data or attribution

Email support@socialbird.app.