Help:Image Guidelines

If you have images of species and you want to show them on Wikispecies, you are most welcome to do so, subject to the conditions below. The Wikimedia Foundation has a big repository of images, and other multimedia files, and they are kept at Wikimedia Commons.

If you are the original author of your images, you must be willing to release them under Wikimedia Commons-accepted licenses. You can release your images under several Creative Commons licenses. If you are not the original author, you need to ensure that you are not infringing copyright while publishing the images. Images in the public domain, or images released under the GNU Free Documentation License or GNU General Public License are allowed in Wikimedia Commons, as well as some Creative Commons licenses. For a complete overview of what is allowed and what is not, check Commons:Licensing.

If you decided on a valid license then you can start uploading. Make sure you tag the image with the appropriate license, and add details to the images. When adding details at least provide the binomial Latin name to the image, so other users will be able to find your images, and there can be no misunderstanding. If you are not 100 percent sure of the classification, you can tag the image as, for example: "Passer sp. (This is a species of the genus Passer, but I'm not sure which)." Other than this vital information, you can add much more, like where the image was taken, etc.

• Preferably, don't use pictures of animals in captivity or cultivated plants. When available, use good images of wild animals and plants in their natural environment instead.
  • Equally, you should use pictures of the natural, wild form of any organism, rather than images of breeds and cultivars developed through artificial selection by humans (such as ornamental plants or pet breeds).
• Avoid adding artistic restorations of prehistoric life (e.g. drawings of dinosaurs) since these are often incorrect or impossible to verify. Use a photo of an appropriate fossil instead.
• Don't add vernacular names in the caption section of the image. This is in line with the language-independent policy of Wikispecies.
• On Genus and Familia articles, wikilinking to the exact species in the caption is useful in further identifying the species; see Carcharodon for an example.
• Typically, two images is enough for one species – one male, one female – if applicable or available.

Add the image to the Wikidata item about the taxon; then add {{Image}} as the first line of the article. No other parameters are necessary.

• Always place the image on the top right corner of the page. (In the editor it will be on the first line)
• Choose an appropriate size (220px for portrait and 250px for landscape)
• Only one image per species, unless the species is sexually dimorphic
• When there's more than one image on Commons, choose the one that shows most details.

Place the image tag, right above the Taxonavigation-header:

[[File:HouseSparrow23.jpg|thumb|250px|''Passer domesticus'']]

As an alternative you can use the {{Image}} template in this case as well, however you need to leave out all parameters regarding the formatting, and contrary to "Option 1" above you must also specify the file name, e.g.:

{{Image|HouseSparrow23.jpg|''Passer domesticus''}}

Please note that all captioned taxon names of genus rank or lower should always use italics, whereas family names and higher should never be italicized. The latter is true for all other names as well: author names, names of journals and repositories etc. should never be italicized either.