FEATHERS? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ for identifying?

General
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She is one of the administrator of the found feathers project, so just adding your observations to that project is usually enough to get it to her.

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Just FYI:

  1. Yeah, that’s always a problem. Unless you have a tripod or a camera that’s easy to hold, aim, and press the shutter button in one hand, or are trapping/catching specimens, then I don’t see a way around it, either in or out of the app…though one of the photo tip topics might know more.
  2. The android version has a limited in-app photo editor that includes a crop tool. For iOS, since the app saves copies of your photos locally, you can crop using the iPhone native photo editor
  3. I have noticed a slight delay in taking a photo in the app vs going to the app and adding an existing photo from the phone’s gallery. I often take the photos first, then sometimes take one photo from inside the app as a “placeholder” to get date and location (in case there is an exif data error with the out of app photos), verify its location is right, then upload the photos taken outside the app. Not the most efficient method, but one that works for me and lets me take a lot of photos without the app popping up to ask “approve” or “retake” between each.
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You can make photos by your camera and later upload to the app, you’re not limited to the app itself.

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Yes, that’s ok. If you add it to the Found Feathers group, it will likely be confirmed, and is in a data base.

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Most of the birds I have uploaded to iNat are dead, because of the silly phone camera. I tried for a while to photograph live birds with the phone, but it was really frustrating and the bird will be gone before the phone decided to cooperate! Dead birds may make you feel sad, but they pose more willingly than live ones!

I take the pictures with the phone, and then when I get home I ‘share’ them with the iNat app of the phone, and upload them using my home wireless because my phone Internet is limited. If the camera didn’t manage to get a Location, I edit it on the computer. The editions and ids I do with the computer as well.

I don’t like using the phone for much else than taking the picture because there is usually too much light outside to work comfortably. But I try to upload them quickly, otherwise I may forget some observation details.

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You can find a pretty comprehensive list of resources for feather identification and general feather biology here on my blog.
Happy feather finding!

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I know what you mean (you even expound upon it), but I like reading this as though you have some sort of life-force sucking “silly” phone camera that specifically kills most birds you take pictures of. If I were a writer, that could be an interesting prompt.

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Just wanted to say this is such a friendly helpful discussion. Makes me happy. :-)

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OMG no! I would have changed the phone if that was the case :D

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Does anyone else buy their phone based on the camera quality over anything else?

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Yes. When I was last due for an upgrade I got an LG30 and then exchanged it for a S9+ in the grace period (2 weeks?) that my provider allowed, solely because I didn’t like the shots I took in the field with the LG.

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Great news. I hadn’t realised that scats would be acceptable evidence for a record. But, logically this should be true for scats that have agreed distinguishing characteristics - echidnas and koalas spring to mind - but I suspect that the majority of scats would be very difficult to ID even to genus. Expect to see some echidna and koala scat records some time soon.
Thanks to those who posted links to feather databases. I had no idea that such useful sources existed.

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Scat generally not too hard to Id, you can easily distinguish canine and feline scar and giving size, shapeinformation, placement and contents you can id e.g. if it’s a fox or a feral dog.
If you’re interested in that theme I think there should be a local tracking group on Facebook or you can join Animals don’t cover their tracks. There’s a lot of useful information.

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looks like you’ve got your answers - but maybe there is a place for a more specific Project like this one in NZ: https://inaturalist.nz/projects/whose-poo-new-zealand ; and we have similar for ‘what’s in the poo’ (i.e. what’s been eaten); animal tracks, nests, and other signs of wildlife; enjoy :-)

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