Terms of Use

Last updated: July 19, 2026

These Terms of Use (“Terms”) form a legal agreement between you and Hilly Shore Labs (“BirdingPath”, “we”, “us”, or “our”), governing your use of www.birdingpath.com and any related subdomains, content, or services (the “Site”). By accessing or using the Site, you agree to these Terms. If you don't agree, please don't use the Site.

1. Eligibility

You must be at least 16 years old (or the age of digital consent in your jurisdiction) to use the Site. By using the Site, you represent that you meet this requirement and that your use does not violate any applicable law.

2. What BirdingPath is — and isn't

BirdingPath publishes free birding education, skill guides, curated video, and consumer-grade research, scoring, and buying guides for birding gear. The Site is for informational purposes only.

Nothing on BirdingPath is:

• Professional, safety, or wildlife-handling advice.
• A substitute for local regulations, permits, or the guidance of qualified naturalists and land managers.
• Legal, tax, financial, or insurance advice.
• A guarantee that any product is suitable for you, your needs, or your conditions.

Bird responsibly: respect wildlife, nests, private property, and posted closures; follow the American Birding Association's Code of Birding Ethics; and always read a manufacturer's instructions and safety warnings before using any equipment.

3. Editorial independence and methodology

Rankings, BirdingScores, and “top picks” on the Site are generated by a documented, deterministic scoring method explained on the methodology page. We accept no payment, free product, or other consideration in exchange for a particular ranking or score. Brands, manufacturers, and retailers cannot pay to alter scores.

Score inputs include published specifications, aggregated owner reviews, and our own structured analysis. Where data is uncertain, we say so. Where we change a score, we change it for everyone — never per-reader. We research and analyze gear; we do not claim hands-on lab testing.

4. Affiliate disclosure

BirdingPath participates in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and may participate in other affiliate programs. We may earn commissions on qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. Our editorial recommendations are based on the BirdingScore method — never on affiliate relationships. Read the full Affiliate Disclosure for details.

5. Pricing, availability, and product information

Prices, availability, ratings, review counts, and product specifications shown on the Site are pulled from public sources and may be out of date by the time you click through. Always confirm the current price, condition, and specifications on the merchant's product page before purchasing. We are not responsible for discrepancies between information shown on the Site and the merchant's listing at the time of your purchase.

Product images, brand names, and trademarks belong to their respective owners and are used for editorial identification under nominative fair use.

6. Third-party video

Our Watch pages embed videos hosted on YouTube by their respective creators. All rights, credit, and views belong to those creators. We embed via YouTube's privacy-enhanced player and are not responsible for third-party video content, which is subject to YouTube's terms.

7. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Use the Site in any way that violates applicable law or regulation.
• Scrape, copy, mirror, or systematically extract content for republication without written permission.
• Use the Site or its content to train machine-learning models without our prior written consent.
• Probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of any BirdingPath system or breach any security or authentication measures.
• Interfere with or disrupt the Site, servers, or networks (denial-of-service attacks, malware, etc.).
• Impersonate BirdingPath, Hilly Shore Labs, or any contributor.
• Use automated means (bots, spiders, crawlers) at a rate that would impair Site performance, except for well-behaved search-engine crawlers obeying our robots.txt.
• Reverse-engineer or attempt to derive the source of any non-public scoring logic.

We may suspend or block access for any user who violates these rules.

8. Intellectual property

All content on the Site — including text, layouts, graphics, the Flight Path curriculum, scoring frameworks, taxonomies, and the BirdingPath name and logo — is the property of Hilly Shore Labs and protected by copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws.

You may share short quotations of our content with attribution and a link back to the source page. You may not republish full articles, level pages, scoring tables, or buying guides without prior written permission.

9. User-submitted content

The Site does not currently host comments, reviews, or other public user submissions. If you email us, we may quote anonymized excerpts of your message in published content (with any identifying details removed) unless you mark the email as confidential. You retain ownership of anything you send; you grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to use, edit, and republish it in connection with the Site.

10. Third-party links

The Site contains links to third-party websites (retailers, manufacturers, video creators, reference sources, social platforms). We don't control those sites and are not responsible for their content, products, services, security, or privacy practices. Linking is not an endorsement.

11. Disclaimers

THE SITE AND ALL CONTENT ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, OR THAT THE SITE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, OR FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS.

WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT INFORMATION ON THE SITE IS CURRENT, COMPLETE, OR ACCURATE. ANY RELIANCE YOU PLACE ON SITE CONTENT IS AT YOUR OWN RISK.

11.1 Outdoor and wildlife safety

Birding takes place outdoors and around wildlife. You are responsible for your own safety and for the welfare of the birds and habitats you visit. Follow local laws, respect nesting birds and posted closures, keep a safe distance from wildlife, use playback sparingly and ethically, and never trespass. Weather, terrain, water, and wildlife carry inherent risks that are yours to assess and manage.

12. Limitation of liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, BIRDINGPATH, Hilly Shore Labs, AND THEIR OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, CONTRACTORS, AND CONTRIBUTORS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES — INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION DAMAGES FOR PERSONAL INJURY, EQUIPMENT FAILURE, PROPERTY DAMAGE, LOST PROFITS, LOST DATA, OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION — ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR USE OF THE SITE, A PURCHASE MADE VIA THE SITE, OR YOUR INABILITY TO USE THE SITE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY.

OUR TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THESE TERMS OR THE SITE WILL NOT EXCEED ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS (USD $100). THIS CAP APPLIES IN THE AGGREGATE TO ALL CLAIMS AND IS NOT PER-INCIDENT.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, so the above limitations may not apply to you in full. In such jurisdictions, our liability is limited to the smallest extent permitted by law.

13. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless BirdingPath, Hilly Shore Labs, and their respective officers, employees, and contributors from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or related to your breach of these Terms, your misuse of the Site, or your violation of any law or third-party right.

14. DMCA / copyright complaints

If you believe content on the Site infringes your copyright, send a notice that complies with the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3), to legal@birdingpath.com. Include: identification of the copyrighted work, identification of the allegedly infringing material with URL, your contact information, a statement of good-faith belief, a statement under penalty of perjury that the notice is accurate, and your physical or electronic signature.

15. Modifications to the Site or these Terms

We may add, change, or remove features, content, and pages at any time. We may also revise these Terms; the “Last updated” date at the top reflects the most recent revision. Material changes will be highlighted on the home page or in a prominent banner for at least 14 days. Your continued use of the Site after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

16. Termination

We may suspend or terminate your access to the Site at any time, with or without notice, for any reason — including breach of these Terms. Sections 8 (Intellectual property), 11–13 (Disclaimers, Limitation of liability, Indemnification), and 17–18 (Governing law, Disputes) survive termination.

17. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, USA, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply.

18. Disputes

Before filing a formal claim, please email legal@birdingpath.com with a description of the dispute. We will try in good faith to resolve it within 30 days.

If informal resolution fails, any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Site will be resolved exclusively in the state or federal courts located in San Mateo County, California, and you consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts. The prevailing party is entitled to recover reasonable legal fees and costs.

Class-action waiver. You and BirdingPath agree that any dispute will be brought only in your or our individual capacity and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class, collective, or representative proceeding.

19. Miscellaneous

• Entire agreement. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and Affiliate Disclosure, constitute the entire agreement between you and BirdingPath regarding the Site.
• Severability. If any provision is held unenforceable, the rest remains in effect.
• No waiver. Our failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of our right to enforce it later.
• Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without our written consent. We may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.
• Headings. Section headings are for convenience only and do not affect interpretation.

20. Contact

Hilly Shore Labs
Operator of BirdingPath
General: hello@birdingpath.com
Legal: legal@birdingpath.com