There are several ways to identify frequent identifiers but this is not the same as finding either local identifiers or expert ones. You really need to look at an identifier’s profile to know more about how they can help you: check what they say in the profile, check how many identifications they have made versus observations made, how long ago they joined, and especially look not only at how many identifications they have made of the same species or genus but also how many local observations they ID’d and the quality of those IDs.
Identifiers on iNaturalist are supposed to independently verify their IDs and not just rely on iNaturalist data. And they should explain their IDs if not also offer up their independent research sources. Sometimes, an ID will be fairly obvious and won’t require anything more than agreement. But often it can require external research and cross-referencing, sometimes a significant amount. Especially if the observation photos don’t provide enough detail and/or if the observer doesn’t add any notes providing additional information, which more often than not in my experience here observers don’t. For example, a key piece of information that is nearly always missing is specimen size. I say all this because the more info you can provide as an observer, especially a well-researched ID of your own on your own observation, the more likely it is that identifiers searching for observations to ID will not only see your observation but also be able to quickly determine their own ID for it, whether or not that matches your own. The longer it will take them to make an ID of their own, the less likely it is you will get their input.
Sometimes no matter how detailed the observer is, the observation will still be very difficult to ID with any certainty.
Each observation you make and submit will have its own page and that page will tell you who the top identifiers are for that taxon. You can click on each to learn more about them on their page before you message them. You can also go to the taxon’s page to see a top identifier there as well as the identifier leaderboard. Use the Explore option in the menu and the filters on that page to find that person’s own observations of that specific taxon (you will need to expand the More Filters to do this). You may want to filter to research grade only and observations with photos specifically.as well as input a place name. You can also use the Identify option in the top menu to access additional filters, including hiding private location observations. Additionally, on your observation’s page, you can zoom in on the map and it will show you the other observations of that taxon nearby. You have to zoom in pretty close to get the option to click on an observation (the hand pointer changes to a finger pointer) and when you do, the private location observations will have a solid marker and the ones that aren’t private will have a white dot in the center. Clicking with the finger pointer will open a popup that will tell you basic details of the observation, including whether or not it is research grade, and give you a view link that takes you to that observation’s page where you can see who ID’d it to get it to research grade, which may not be the person you started checking. In which case, you can click their links, check out their information and possibly reach out to them instead or in addition to the original identifier you looked at. And if all this doesn’t get you what you need, you can start a project page for the taxon you chose for your observation. Even if you’re only ever the only member of the project, this can still pull in specific other observations you can review if you want a better ID for your observation and/or if you want to find identifiers. The project will pull in everything you tell it to. For example, I currently have a project to help with the IDs of several area observations of a specific spider species. It is a pretty rare species in the area and there are only 18 observations currently, 9 of which still need to reach research grade. By creating a project, I have all 9 in one place to help me review all of them against the current research grade observations so I can hopefully help them reach research grade as well. That project of mine is open for others to join but mainly I set it up for my work. You could do something similar to aid you with getting your observations narrowed to a species and then to research grade. Projects also have pretty powerful filtering tools to aid you further in your process.
One other thing worth mentioning: iNaturalist has far more observations than identifications. You might help yourself get IDs for your observations if you make a lot of IDs yourself for others. It can help your profile and make others want to follow you. And if great identifiers are following you, chances are they will see your observations needing IDs sooner than they might otherwise, without you having to message them.
Hope this helps.
