I’ve been using the Identify tab to search by taxon and place. For some searches, I want to see the US except for Alaska and Hawaii. I tried using the Continental United States as a place but the search results say no observations. I see the Continental Unites States is marked “colloquial” so I wasn’t sure if that’s why it’s not turning up any results?
Continental United States, US · iNaturalist
Any info, tips, or tricks on using places are welcome :)
You could set up a collection project filter with just the lower 48 states.
When setting up a place one has to choose a place type, but the available options often don’t make any sense, and which one you choose never has any effect on anything, as far as I know. I suspect this exists only because at some point someone thought it might eventually be useful and no one has much reason to get rid of it.
No, the “Colloquial” label is not the reason for no observations. The reason for lack of observations is that this “place” got defined without a boundary - it is just a point in Kansas. Without a boundary, iNaturalist can’t know what observations should be there. Not a useful place.
The suggestion by @raymie of setting up a project with the 48 states is probably your best bet - you can then choose the project in your identify page filters.