Contribute to Piranga

Piranga was developed to help bird-banders refine their ageing and sexing skills by providing a photographic illustration of key features to complement existing text resources. Our objective is to eventually present photos of each age and sex class for all Western Hemisphere birds - but achieving this is dependent on contributions from banders. If you are a bird-bander, and you have photographs of birds in the hand that clearly show the key characters used to determine age and sex (e.g., photos of wings and/or tails that show details of molt patterns and feather shape, in addition to photos of the whole bird), we encourage you to submit them.

Most birds are protected in North America by federal, state, provincial or territorial laws. Permits are required before birds may be captured or marked. Only people with appropriate permits and training can legally capture and handle birds for banding and photography. You must know how to safely handle birds and have adequate training before attempting to photograph birds in the hand. Any photograph that suggests a bird was not being safely handled will be removed.

Please read the "Instructions for Photo Submission" before contributing your images. To contribute or view files that you have already contributed, please click on "Submit / Review Images".

We also welcome assistance with expanding the number of curated species accounts in Piranga. If there is a species you know well that is not yet available in Piranga, please consider downloading our Species Account Template, filling in the relevant details, and submitting the file to us at info@natureinstruct.org. The template is intended to provide clear instructions and to simplify and standardize content development through the use of drop-down box selections and default wording in some parts. We encourage contributors to follow the framework as closely as possible, but recognize that each species is unique, and accept that some exceptions may be required. If you believe substantial deviations from the template are required, please contact us at info@natureinstruct.org to discuss options.