Identifying in iNaturalist. What if I’m not an expert in anything?

The identification piece is just as important as the observation piece. That’s how we’ll get to 1000 species this year. You can actually start the identifications as soon as the first observations start to roll in.
You’ve already found the project. Click on “Observations.” Click on the “Identify” box above the grid of photos (not “Identify” in the top menu; using the box above the grid assures that you’re just getting CNC 2023 observations). If you don’t want to see everything, you can use the “Filters” to the right of the “Go” button. There is a series of icons so that you can limit yourself to just birds, just plants, just amphibians, just mushrooms, etc. (Click on multiple icons, if you wish, like amphibians and reptiles to get all herps.) There are other filters you can use. Now click go to see the observations that haven’t made it to Research Grade*.

If you don’t feel yourself comfortable being the final authority in any particular group, but you can tell a robin from an oak tree, you can use the “unknown” filter, the outline of the leaf with the question mark inside. Identifiers who are just looking for their own group (birds, beetles, grasses) will miss these unknowns. You can help by putting in a preliminary identification. Go as far down in the identification as you feel comfortable. If you know a Northern Mockingbird or an American Beautyberry when you see it, go ahead and confirm it. If all you know is “plant,” put “Plants.” If all you can do is put “bird,” put “Birds.” Even that little bit of help will bring additional observations to the attention of the appropriate “expert” and your effort will be worthwhile.

As mentioned in earlier posts, we are looking for wild organisms. You can also help by identifying observations that are obviously not wild. If you see something that is obviously not wild (in a clay pot, in a garden surrounded by mulch, an obvious pet or zoo animal), you can scroll down to the bottom and mark “captive/cultivated.” Be careful, though. I almost marked something cultivated today, before I saw the note “fly” and a small fly hiding on one leaf.

*Research Grade generally means that two independent identifiers agree on the identification. If there is disagreement among the identifiers, then a complicated algorithm determines when and if Research Grade is achieved. Sometimes it never is.

Bruce Neville
Brazos Valley CNC Coordinator

Posted on April 27, 2023 01:24 AM by bruceneville