diff --git a/scripts/utils/notifications.py b/scripts/utils/notifications.py
index 1e16cde..51fe0ce 100644
--- a/scripts/utils/notifications.py
+++ b/scripts/utils/notifications.py
@@ -68,6 +68,7 @@ def sendAppriseNotifications(species, confidence, path, date, time, week, latitu
                     # TODO: Make this work with non-english comnames. Implement the "// convert sci name to English name" logic from overview.php here
                     url = 'https://www.flickr.com/services/rest/?method=flickr.photos.search&api_key='+str(settings_dict.get('FLICKR_API_KEY'))+'&text='+str(comName)+' bird&sort=relevance&per_page=5&media=photos&format=json&license=2%2C3%2C4%2C5%2C6%2C9&nojsoncallback=1'
                     resp = requests.get(url=url)
+                    resp.encoding= "utf-8"
                     data = resp.json()["photos"]["photo"][0]
 
                     image_url = 'https://farm'+str(data["farm"])+'.static.flickr.com/'+str(data["server"])+'/'+str(data["id"])+'_'+str(data["secret"])+'_n.jpg'