Last updated: July 2026
Michigan Birds is a photography-first field guide to the birds of Michigan. This page explains, in plain terms, what information the site collects and how it's used. We keep this simple and collect as little as possible.
The site has no public login or user accounts. You can browse every page, view the map, and log a bird sighting without creating an account or giving us your name, email, or address.
When you log a sighting, we record the bird, the park you selected, and the time. To prevent spam and duplicate reports, we also store a one-way hashed version of your IP address and a random device token in your browser — neither of which identifies you personally. Sighting locations are always public parks and natural areas, never home addresses. Submissions are protected by Cloudflare Turnstile, an anti-bot check.
To understand how the site is used and improve it, we collect anonymous usage analytics. This uses first-party cookies to recognize a browser across a visit and records:
The cookies used for this are cseo_vid (a random visitor ID), cseo_sess(the current session), and, if present, Google's _ga cookie. This data isaggregated and shared with Calibr Insight, an analytics service, to produce reports about site traffic and engagement. It is not sold, and it is not used to advertise to you individually. Visitors in regions with consent requirements (such as the EU and UK) are only tracked if they accept through the consent prompt shown to them.
The site may display ads from third-party ad networks. Those networks may set their own cookies; their use of data is governed by their own privacy policies.
Analytics and sighting records are kept on a rolling basis and older detail is automatically removed (visitor analytics after about 90 days).
You can clear or block cookies at any time in your browser settings, which stops the analytics cookies described above from persisting. Blocking cookies won't prevent you from using the site.
Questions about this policy? Email hello@michiganbirds.net.