No Charles, there is nothing automatic about the database. Photo URLs are manually copied and pasted into the database by a small band of volunteers. Whether a photo gets put in the database depends on whether a volunteer notices that a pic of a species not yet represented has been posted and takes the time to add it to the database. That is the case regardless of whether the photo is posted to this forum or to the Gallery. In the case of Gray Catbird, there are already several pics of this species in the Gallery, but no volunteer has gotten around to adding one to the database.
The purpose of this forum is not so much to provide a more direct route to get photos in the database, but to provide an alternative to posting in the Gallery. The idea was that if you had a large number of pics of species that would be new for the database and wanted to make them available at a rate faster than three per day (the post limit in the Gallery), you could post them here instead. Or if you had a poor-quality shot of a new species and didn't want to bump somebody else's fine photo off the front page of the Gallery by posting it there, you could post it here instead. If you have a good quality shot and you are not up against your limit of three in the Gallery, you might as well post it there where more people will see it.
Another way to use this forum is to draw attention to a photo which has already been posted to the Gallery so that a volunteer will notice it and add it to the database. That is what Paul has done and I will add his shot to the database. But if you really want to get your photos in the database, your best bet is to volunteer and add them yourself. Contact admin or IanF to volunteer.
Glen