The trickiest of all species.
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I’m definitely a generalist on iNat when it comes to observing and identifying. When I’m observing I will take pictures of anything that I have time to, more or less. While identifying I float around from my local area, to mammals, to sorting unknowns… nothing super technical.
For work I’m definitely a specialist (California bats- but bat ID based on pictures is a pain, and I can’t bring myself to work on bat acoustics on iNat after I do that for 8 hours at work!). I wish my work specialty translated to iNat more, but that’s just not possible right now.
I guess you could say on iNat I do specialize in finding copyright infringement (I have 10 different bookmarks for links that I use to find copyright infringement at this point) but that wasn’t really the question!
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With observations, I’m generalist insects (particularly parasitoid wasps), with a mix of other things as they interest me.
But in terms of ID-ing, I’m a generalist in Australian Hymenoptera, but ‘developing’ specialist in Australian Ichneumonidae and, once sufficiently experienced also moving to Chalcidoidea too hopefully. This mainly came about because I realised there weren’t many existing wasp specialists around these parts and decided to take the hard road and educate myself :)
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I’m a “herp specialist”, although I by no means consider myself to be a real, professional specialist :)
I only upload observations of reptiles and amphibians. I identify mostly reptiles and amphibians of the Western Palearctic region, as well as geckos from all over the world.
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The opposite of that is - ‘people who know everything about nothing’ in the sense of a broad knowledge of a tiny taxon.
I am a generalist. Deal out the next 10 cards from my Unknown piles. Was told off yesterday for moving obs from Unknown to Lepidoptera (but he will remember me when his more specific IDs roll in)
Cape Peninsula plants I can be T / key shaped.
PS the wonderful thing about iNat is finding the keys that fit together to mosaic the world. Who shall I ask for this obs?
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Specialist: Mostly in Western Australian orchids and Drosera.
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Thanks for that link. That describes it very well. I’m much too involved with so many things a T doesn’t fit at all!
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Specialist, with focus and knowledge of species directed mostly to my region
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I usually go out looking for something specific like birds (early morning) or dragonflies/damselflies (late morning onward). But, I also look at other things that are around me and will try to record/photograph something else that catches my eye especially if it is something I haven’t seen before.
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Do you do any identifying?
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Generalist (and would steal the key-shaped label posted above). I know birds of the Northeastern US very well, but generally don’t ID them here because there are a wealth of ID’ers. I will ID stuff that slips through the cracks though. Other than that I’m getting better with plants of the NE, know most of the common stuff and have particular interests in ferns, clubmosses, and orchids. Getting better with fish as well, especially saltwater species. But really my interests are quite broad and I’m interested in almost everything living. The one I might say I have the least interest in is Homo sapiens, ha!
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Started with birds (specialty) and have become generalist. Appreciate id’ing unknowns with no other filters. Sometimes enjoy filtering with audio because it’s often birds (or frogs, crickets, cicadas).
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Competence is kind of rings: a small one that you master very well, and then larger ones that you know less and less, made of groups combined with geography. I am a specialist of Soft-winged flower beetles (Melyridae) of circum-Mediterranean, but relatively well prepared on Melyridae of other places, and on circum-Mediterranean Beetles in general.
Outside those domains, I usually check for beetles IDed at order level, trying to move some at family level, the one at which the specialists often look.
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I like to think that I am a generalist of marine invertebrates. I like to move higher level IDs of Crustacea/Echinoderms/Molluscs down as much as I can. I have the most experience with Florida molluscs and have been deep diving into the crabs lately.
On iNat I started as a barnacle “specialist” because I noticed a huge lack in identifiers and wanted to help out. This was when the leaderboard tab was more of a thing and I only ever say nzshells at the top of the barnacle rankings with no one near him. I used Peter as a sort of silent mentor and learned from his IDs and comments until he went MIA from iNat a few years ago.
Now I occasionally try to clean up some of the barnacles but the massive numbers feel a bit overwhelming. So I focus on molluscs and crabs on the Gulf of Mexico for the most part. I enjoy diving into the different crab groups and learning about what is found locally and then fixing the current IDs.
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I too, would class myself as a Generalist with heavy interest in Insects and Arachnids tho’ have much to learn about them! Amazed at the sheer number of Species here in just one Eastern Virginia county! (Westmoreland).
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Haha, I am definitely a specialist. ADHD took me down a rabbit hole into stink bugs several years ago and I can’t get home.
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I suppose I’m somewhere in the middle? I’ll post anything interesting I can find, though insects are my usual niche of choice. I mostly ID lepidopterans, but I’m not opposed to helping with other things if I see something I’m familiar with.
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I’m a generalist, but have much more experience with birds than other organisms, left over from my specialist days. For observing, I tend to focus on birds as they are still my primary interest, but also photograph anything else I notice. For identifying, I mostly do Unknowns as I don’t have a high skill level in any group.
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Well said
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I am both, a specialist generalist.
Specialises on lepidoptera and birds. Then explore other genres, out of curiosity and with privilege of an enabling environment.
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