Terms of use

Updated 8 October 2026

Last updated: 8 October 2026

These terms apply when you use the Birdfact website (birdfact.com) and the Birdfact app for iPhone and Android, which we call "Birdfact". Please read them carefully. By using Birdfact you agree to them. If you don't agree, please don't use Birdfact.

The short version

Birdfact is run by NC Digital Limited, a UK company.
Identifications are suggestions, not guarantees. Check before you rely on one.
Birdfact Unlimited renews automatically until you cancel. In the app, new subscribers to the annual plan get a 7-day free trial. Cancel at least 24 hours before it ends and you won't be charged.
Subscriptions bought in the app are billed, cancelled and refunded through Apple or Google. Subscriptions bought on our website are billed by us through Stripe.
Your photos and recordings stay yours. You let us use them to run Birdfact and to check its accuracy.
Our text, images and 3D models are protected. Most of our bird photos are licensed from Shutterstock and can't be reused, and our 3D birds are for viewing on Birdfact only.
Nothing in these terms affects your legal rights as a consumer. The law of England and Wales applies.

1. About us and these terms

Birdfact is run by NC Digital Limited, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 16413452). Our registered office is 5 Canon Court, Institute St, Bolton BL1 1PZ, United Kingdom. Our VAT number is GB 508193686. You can contact us at support@birdfact.com.

These terms, together with our privacy policy, are the agreement between you and us. If you got the app from the App Store or Google Play, that store's terms also apply to your download and purchases (see section 16).

2. Who can use Birdfact

You must be 13 or over to create an account or use the identification features (identifying a bird from a photo, a description or its sound). If you're under 18, you need a parent or guardian's permission to buy a subscription. Anyone can read our articles and field guide.
Birdfact is for your personal, non-commercial use.
The app is available in the United Kingdom, Ireland, the United States and Canada.
The app needs a compatible iPhone or Android phone (the store listing shows which versions) and an internet connection to identify birds.

3. Your account

You can use the app without signing up. When you first go past the welcome screen without signing in, the app creates an anonymous account for you.
Add your email address (or, on iPhone, Sign in with Apple) to keep your garden list if you change or lose your phone. If you remove the app from an anonymous account without adding one of these, you lose access to that account and its list, and we can't recover it for you.
Keep your sign-in details secure and don't share your account. You're responsible for what happens under your account. Tell us straight away at support@birdfact.com if you think someone else has used it.
You can delete your account at any time in the app (Profile → Delete account) or on the website (Account → Delete account). Our privacy policy explains what that deletes.

4. Identifications are suggestions

Birdfact identifies birds automatically: from photos and descriptions using Google's Gemini service, and from sounds using our own bird-sound identifier. We work hard to make them accurate, and we check against the birds recorded where and when you saw yours, but identifications can be wrong. Mistakes are more likely with blurred or distant photos, look-alike species, young birds, rare birds and escaped cage birds, and in recordings where several birds sing at once.

Confidence words such as "high", "medium" and "low" are our estimate, not a guarantee.
Check an identification before you rely on it for anything that matters, such as a record you send to a bird club, county recorder or survey. Where it matters, ask an experienced birder to confirm it.
"Likely in your garden" is based on what birdwatchers have recorded near you, from GBIF.org data. It tells you what's likely, not what's actually in your garden.
Species pages, articles and tips are general information. We try to keep them accurate and up to date, but we can't promise they're complete or free of errors.

5. Birds, wildlife and safety

Please watch birds without disturbing them. In the UK it's a criminal offence to take, damage or destroy a wild bird's nest while it's in use, or to take its eggs. For many rarer species it's also an offence to disturb them at or near the nest. Keep your distance, especially in the breeding season.
Don't touch sick or dead wild birds, because of the risk of bird flu. In Great Britain, report dead wild birds to the government (search "report dead wild birds" on GOV.UK). Elsewhere, follow your local authority's advice.
If you find an injured bird or a young bird on the ground, get advice from a wildlife rescue or animal welfare charity before you do anything. Most fledglings on the ground are fine and are still fed by their parents.
Respect private land and local rules, and take care near water, cliffs and roads. Don't use Birdfact while you're driving.

6. Birdfact Unlimited

What you get

Birdfact Unlimited is our paid plan. It gives you unlimited identifications and the other features we describe where you subscribe. On our website it's still sold under its earlier name, Birdfact Plus; the two are the same plan. Unlimited is for personal use, so it has a fair-use limit that stops automated or commercial use: currently 30 identifications in any 24 hours and 300 in any 30 days, which is far more than people normally use. If you reach it, we tell you when you can identify again. We won't lower these limits for a subscription you've already paid for until its next renewal.

Without a subscription, you can still use Birdfact for free, with a limited number of identifications. We show your free allowance in the app and on the website. We may change it, and when we test what works best, the free allowance for new app accounts can differ from one person to another.

Plans and prices

We offer an annual plan and a monthly plan, and on our website a one-off lifetime option. We'll show you the price, including any tax that applies, before you buy. Prices can differ between countries and between the app and the website.

Free trial

In the app, if you're new to Birdfact Unlimited, the annual plan starts with a 7-day free trial. Apple and Google decide who counts as new under their rules: there's one free trial per Apple Account or Google account.
When the trial ends, you'll be charged the annual price and your subscription will renew every year, unless you cancel before then. In the App Store, cancel at least 24 hours before the trial ends.
If you turn on the trial reminder in the app, we'll remind you two days before your trial ends.
Depending on the store, cancelling during the trial may end your access straight away.
The monthly plan, and plans bought on our website, have no free trial.

Automatic renewal

Your subscription renews automatically at the end of each year or month and you'll be charged the current price, unless you cancel before the renewal date. In the App Store, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the end of the current period.

How to cancel

iPhone: open Settings, tap your name, then Subscriptions → Birdfact → Cancel Subscription. You can also go there from the app (Profile → Manage or cancel).
Android: open the Google Play Store, tap your profile picture, then Payments & subscriptions → Subscriptions → Birdfact → Cancel subscription. You can also go there from the app (Profile → Manage or cancel).
Website: go to Account → Subscription, or email support@birdfact.com.

When you cancel, you keep Birdfact Unlimited until the end of the period you've already paid for, and it won't renew. Removing the app or deleting your Birdfact account doesn't cancel a subscription bought in the app, so cancel it first. Deleting your account does cancel a subscription bought on our website, straight away, and any paid time left (or lifetime access) ends with it; if you're within your 14-day cancellation period, ask for your refund before you delete.

Refunds

Bought in the app: Apple or Google takes your payment and handles billing, cancellation and refunds under its own policies (Apple, for example, lets UK and EU customers cancel a purchase within 14 days). Ask Apple at reportaproblem.apple.com, or Google through your Google Play order history. We can't refund App Store purchases ourselves. For Google Play purchases, you can also email us and we can issue a refund through Google. None of this affects your legal rights if Birdfact Unlimited is faulty or not as described (see section 14).
Bought on our website: you can cancel within 14 days of your first payment and get a refund. Because Birdfact Unlimited starts straight away when you ask for it, we may take off an amount for the part of that period you've already had. After the first 14 days, you can cancel at any time, but we don't refund the rest of a period you've paid for, unless the law requires it or these terms say so.
Lifetime access: if you bought lifetime access on our website, it gives you Birdfact Unlimited for as long as we offer Birdfact Unlimited, on the account you bought it with. It's personal to you and can't be transferred. If we stop offering Birdfact Unlimited, we'll give you at least 30 days' notice and a fair partial refund based on how long you've had it.

Price changes

We may change our prices. We'll tell you in advance before a new price applies to your subscription. For app subscriptions, Apple or Google will also tell you and, where their rules require it, ask you to agree. For website subscriptions, we'll email you at least 30 days before. If you don't want to pay the new price, you can cancel before it applies.

Using Unlimited on your devices

Birdfact Unlimited works wherever you sign in to Birdfact with the same account. If you reinstall the app or change phones, use "Restore purchases" to bring back a subscription bought through Apple or Google.

7. Supporting Birdfact

On our website you can make a voluntary contribution to support Birdfact, once or every month. Contributions are paid to NC Digital Limited through Stripe. They aren't charitable donations, they don't buy access to any feature, and Gift Aid doesn't apply. A monthly contribution continues until you stop it, which you can do at any time by emailing support@birdfact.com. We'll stop it as soon as we can and refund any payment taken after you asked. If you contribute by mistake, tell us within 14 days and we'll refund it.

8. Your content

"Your content" means the photos, recordings, descriptions, sightings, notes and messages you give us.

You keep ownership of your content.
You give us permission to use it to run Birdfact. That means a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to store, copy, resize, analyse and process your content, and to send it to our service providers, so we can identify birds for you, keep your records, keep Birdfact secure, and check and improve its accuracy as our privacy policy describes. This permission ends when your content is deleted, except for copies we must keep by law and backups that are overwritten within 30 days.
Public sightings. If you choose to make a sighting public on the website, you also let us show it on birdfact.com and in the Birdfact app: the photo, your display name or first name, the place name, the date and the camera details. We credit your photo to you, or to "a Birdfact user" where we can't show a name. We decide which sightings to publish, and you can make yours private again or delete it at any time.
You promise that you have the right to share your content with us (for example, that you took the photo or have the photographer's permission) and that it doesn't break the law or anyone else's rights.
We don't sell your content, and we don't use it in advertising.
We may remove content that breaks these terms.

9. Acceptable use

When you use Birdfact, please don't:

break the law or anyone else's rights, or upload content you don't have the right to share;
upload anything illegal, offensive or harmful, or photos of people without their permission;
use Birdfact to disturb, harm or persecute wild birds, or to find nests, eggs or sensitive species so that others can disturb or take them;
try to get around free allowances, fair-use limits, payments or security, for example by creating accounts automatically or in bulk;
use bots, scrapers or other automated means to access Birdfact, copy its content or data in bulk, or send identifications at scale;
use Birdfact's content, data or identifications to build a competing product or dataset, or to train machine-learning models;
copy, change or reverse-engineer the app, except where the law allows it;
interfere with Birdfact, overload it or introduce anything harmful such as malware;
resell Birdfact or use it for commercial purposes without our written permission; or
present Birdfact's identifications as if an expert had confirmed them.

10. Our content

Birdfact's text, design, software, data compilations, logos and name belong to NC Digital Limited or the people who license them to us, and are protected by copyright and other laws.
Photographs: most of our bird photographs are licensed from Shutterstock. Others are used under their own licences and credited where they appear, and community photos belong to the people who took them. Our licences don't let you copy, download, reuse or share our photos outside Birdfact, so please don't.
3D models: our 3D birds, and the images, animations and files made from them, are our own work. You may view them, turn them and place them in your room on birdfact.com and in the app, link to them and share those links, and show them from our pages in a classroom, talk or club meeting. Without our written permission you may not download, extract, copy or save the model files (including with browser tools or capture software), put them or anything made from them on another website, app, game, print or 3D print, use them or images or video of them to train machine-learning models or build datasets, or use them commercially. To license a model, contact us at support@birdfact.com.
Text: you're welcome to link to our pages and quote short extracts with a credit and a link. Please don't republish our articles or species pages.
Data: some of our data comes from open sources, such as GBIF.org and AviList, under licences like Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. We credit them in the app's Credits screen, and their licences apply to that data.
Using the app: we give you a personal, non-transferable licence to use the Birdfact app on devices you own or control, as the app store's rules allow. We can end it if you break these terms.
Ideas and feedback you send us can be used to improve Birdfact without any obligation to you.

11. Advertising and other websites

Some pages on our website show ads managed by Mediavine. Showing an ad doesn't mean we recommend what's advertised. Birdfact also links to other websites, which we don't control and aren't responsible for.

12. Changes to Birdfact and to these terms

We keep improving Birdfact, so features may change, and we may add or remove them. We may need to pause Birdfact for maintenance or because of problems outside our control, and we can't promise it will always be available or free of faults.
If we remove a major feature of Birdfact Unlimited, we'll tell you, and you can cancel. If you subscribed on our website, we'll refund the part of the period you've paid for but not had.
If we decide to close Birdfact, we'll give you reasonable notice (at least 30 days unless that's impossible), refund website subscribers for any period they've paid for but not had, and help app subscribers ask Apple or Google for a refund.
We may update these terms, for example when the law or our features change. We'll change the "last updated" date and, if a change is significant, tell you in advance in the app, on the website or by email. For subscribers, a change that works against you applies from your next renewal. If you don't agree to a change, you can stop using Birdfact and cancel your subscription.

13. Suspending or closing accounts

You can stop using Birdfact and delete your account at any time.
We may suspend or close an account that seriously or repeatedly breaks these terms, harms Birdfact or other people, or if the law requires it. We'll tell you why, unless the law or security reasons stop us. If we close a website subscription without good reason under these terms, we'll refund the part of the period you've paid for but not had.

14. Our responsibility to you

We're responsible for loss or damage you suffer that is a foreseeable result of our breaking these terms or failing to use reasonable care and skill. Loss is foreseeable if it's obvious it will happen, or if you and we both knew it might happen. We're not responsible for loss or damage that isn't foreseeable.
Birdfact is for domestic and private use. We're not responsible to you for any loss of profit, business, business opportunity or revenue.
It's your responsibility to check an identification before you rely on it for anything important (see section 4).
If digital content we supply damages a device or digital content that belongs to you because we didn't use reasonable care and skill, we'll either repair the damage or pay you fair compensation. We won't be responsible if you could have avoided the damage by following our advice, for example to install a free update.
Apart from the things in the next point, which we can't and don't limit, our total responsibility to you for all claims in any 12-month period is limited to £100 or the amount you paid for Birdfact Unlimited in that period, whichever is higher.
Nothing in these terms limits or excludes our responsibility for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for anything else the law doesn't allow us to limit or exclude. That includes your rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015: for example, that services are carried out with reasonable care and skill, and that digital content is as described, fit for purpose and of satisfactory quality. Citizens Advice can tell you more about your rights.

15. Complaints and the law

If you have a problem, please email support@birdfact.com first. We'll try to put it right quickly. If we can't resolve your complaint, we'll tell you which alternative dispute resolution body could consider it and whether we'll take part.
These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. You can bring legal proceedings in the courts of England and Wales. If you live in Scotland, you can also bring them in the Scottish courts, and if you live in Northern Ireland, in the courts of Northern Ireland.
If you live outside the United Kingdom, you keep the protection of the mandatory consumer laws of the country where you live, and you can bring proceedings in your local courts.

16. App Store and Google Play

If you got the app from Apple's App Store:

These terms are between you and NC Digital Limited, not Apple. We, not Apple, are responsible for the app and its content.
Apple's standard Licensed Application End User License Agreement also applies to your use of the app. Your licence to use the app lets you use it on Apple devices you own or control, as the App Store's usage rules allow.
Apple has no obligation to provide maintenance or support for the app.
If the app doesn't conform to a warranty that applies to it, you can tell Apple, and Apple will refund the price you paid for the app (if any). As far as the law allows, Apple has no other warranty obligation for the app.
Apple isn't responsible for dealing with any claims about the app or your use of it, including product liability claims, claims that the app doesn't meet a legal or regulatory requirement, and claims under consumer protection, privacy or similar laws.
If anyone claims that the app or your use of it infringes their intellectual property rights, we, not Apple, are responsible for investigating, defending, settling and discharging that claim.
You confirm that you aren't in a country subject to a US Government embargo or designated as a "terrorist-supporting" country, and that you aren't on any US Government list of prohibited or restricted parties.
Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these terms. Once you accept them, Apple has the right to enforce them against you as a third-party beneficiary.

If you got the app from Google Play, Google Play's terms apply to your download and purchases. Google isn't responsible for the app.

17. General

If a court decides that part of these terms can't be enforced, the rest still applies.
We may transfer our rights and obligations under these terms to another organisation, for example if we sell Birdfact. We'll tell you if that happens, and it won't reduce your rights. You need our written permission to transfer yours.
Apart from Apple as described in section 16, nobody else has any rights under these terms.
If we don't enforce one of these terms straight away, we can still enforce it later.

18. Contact us

Email support@birdfact.com, or write to NC Digital Limited, 5 Canon Court, Institute St, Bolton BL1 1PZ, United Kingdom.