BirdScribe Privacy Policy

Last updated: 22 July 2026

BirdScribe is a free, anonymous field-recording tool for birders, built by Kingfisher Birding (Cairns, Australia). This policy explains what BirdScribe does and does not do with your data.

The short version: BirdScribe does not require an account, does not ask who you are, and does not store your identity. Almost everything stays on your device.

No account, no identity. BirdScribe does not collect your name, email, phone number, or any account credentials. You use the app anonymously.

What stays on your device. Your observations, transcripts, GPS coordinates, session notes, and exported eBird files are stored locally on your device using on-device storage. BirdScribe does not upload these to our servers in this version.

What leaves your device. Four things leave your device. None of them identifies you, and only the last carries any identifier at all: a random install identifier that is not linked to any person or account. First, when you record an observation, the text of what you said (for example, “five rainbow lorikeets in the fig tree”) is sent through BirdScribe’s server to Anthropic’s Claude API so the app can suggest the species. BirdScribe’s server passes the transcript along and does not store it. Only the transcript is sent, without any identifier; your narration audio stays on your device and is never uploaded. Anthropic processes this text under their own terms; see anthropic.com/legal. Second, when you capture a bird call (a “sound bite”), the audio recording is sent to BirdScribe’s own server for automated species analysis using BirdNET. An approximate location (latitude, longitude, and the week of the year) is sent alongside the clip, again without any identifier, to improve species matching for your region. That recording is analysed and then discarded straight away; it is not stored on our server. Third, to show a friendly place name for your session (for example, “Cattana Wetlands”), your GPS coordinates are sent once per session to Mapbox, a mapping service, which returns the nearest place name. Mapbox processes those coordinates under its own terms (see mapbox.com/legal/privacy); BirdScribe does not store them on any server. Fourth, BirdScribe sends anonymous usage events (which features are used and whether recordings succeed), tagged with a random install identifier so events from one install can be counted together. That identifier is generated on your device, is not linked to any person or account, and the events never include your location, transcripts, species, or audio.

Speech recognition. BirdScribe uses your device’s built-in speech recognition to turn your spoken words into text. Depending on your platform, device, and language settings, some audio may be processed on Apple’s or Google’s servers. That processing is handled by the platform provider under its own privacy policy, not by BirdScribe. BirdScribe does not store your voice recordings on its servers.

Location. BirdScribe uses your device location to tag observations for eBird export. That location data is stored on your device and is included in the eBird files you choose to export. It leaves your device in only the two ways described in “What leaves your device” above: an approximate location sent alongside a captured bird call so BirdNET can narrow the matches to species for your region, and your GPS coordinates sent once per session to Mapbox to look up a friendly place name for the session. Neither is stored by BirdScribe, and neither is linked to you.

eBird export. When you export a checklist, BirdScribe creates a file on your device. What you do with that file — including submitting it to eBird — is your choice and is governed by eBird’s own terms.

Children. BirdScribe is not directed at children under 13 and does not knowingly collect data from them.

Changes. If a future version of BirdScribe collects additional data (for example, optional cloud sync), this policy will be updated and the change disclosed before that feature is enabled.

Contact. Questions: hello@kingfisherbirding.com.