Wildseen combines its own code with open datasets. This page lists each source, its licence and how Wildseen uses it. The app contacts none of these sources for the bundled data: it is stored in the app. Only Wikipedia, Wikimedia and Wikidata lookups use the network, and only when you allow them in Settings.
1. Species occurrence data: GBIF (rarity and seasons)
Wildseen’s rarity tiers (common, fairly common, uncommon, rare), the monthly “when to look” information and the “Expected this month” lists are derived from species occurrence records published through GBIF.
What the derived dataset contains. For each species and country: a rarity tier, 12 monthly activity levels and a record count. Only these aggregated counts are included in the app. No individual records, locations, observers or photos are redistributed.
Which records were counted.
Only records licensed CC0 1.0 or CC BY 4.0. Records under any other licence, including CC BY-NC, were excluded.
Occurrence status present.
Basis of record: human observation, machine observation or occurrence.
No geospatial issue flagged.
Year 2000 or later.
How the figures are made.
Counts are grouped by species, country and month.
Rarity is the species’ rank among the other species of the same class in that country.
Monthly levels are smoothed across neighbouring months.
Species with too few records get no tier.
Data date. 23 October 2026
Citation. Derived dataset GBIF.org (23 October 2026) Filtered export of GBIF occurrence data https://doi.org/10.15468/dd.92ugkf
Licence of the derived counts. GBIF does not assign a separate licence to this derived dataset. It aggregates counts from records published under CC0 1.0 or CC BY 4.0 only. Please attribute it with the citation above, and follow the GBIF data user agreement and citation guidelines.
Disclaimer. GBIF does not guarantee the accuracy of the data it serves. Occurrence records reflect where people reported species, not true abundance, so they are biased toward well-visited places and popular species.
2. Other datasets bundled in the app
Source Used for Licence
AVONET (Tobias et al. 2022, doi 10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7)
Bird traits: weight, wing length, habitat, migration
CC BY 4.0
EltonTraits 1.0 (Wilman et al. 2014, doi 10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1)
Bird and mammal weight, diet, daily rhythm
CC0
GRIIS national checklists (Pagad et al. 2018, doi 10.1038/sdata.2017.202), via GBIF
Introduced and invasive status per country
CC BY 4.0
GBIF Backbone Taxonomy (doi 10.15468/39omei)
Matching species names across sources
CC BY 4.0
Natural Earth
Country boundaries
Public domain
IANA Time Zone Database
Sunrise and sunset times
Public domain
Wikimedia Commons recordings (via Wikidata)
Bird and animal calls
Per file: CC0, public domain, CC BY or CC BY-SA, credited under each recording
3. Species identification
SpeciesNet (Google LLC), Apache-2.0.
MegaDetector (Microsoft and Dan Morris), MIT.
4. Sources used online, when you allow them in Settings
Wikipedia: species text under CC BY-SA 4.0; pictures from Wikimedia Commons, each under its own free licence, with author and licence shown.
Wikidata: facts such as measurements and conservation status, CC0. Conservation status values originate from the IUCN Red List.
OpenStreetMap, via Photon: place search when the device geocoder is unavailable, ODbL.
5. Contact
For questions about these terms or about privacy, or to make a privacy request, users may contact the developer using the contact details provided on the Wildseen Google Play listing.