Hello everyone! I enjoy searching for species, especially birds, in places I plan to visit or would like to visit. However, I’ve noticed more and more often that multiple observations show not only the same species (which is completely fair) but the same individual (sometimes it is uploaded also wi…

This question is addressed in the FAQ: What should I do about “duplicate” Observations? In short, duplicates are indeed annoying, but the best coarse of action is to leave a polite comment and move on. My go-to copy and paste is: Is this the same individual as [this observation](link here)? If s…

Different location - use DQA - Location is not accurate - which makes it casual. For an actual duplicate - the same photo - I use (this is not in the guidelines) See also (insert link to other obs) please delete one of them Please don’t ID duplicates - they need to be deleted by the observer S…

Maybe it’s just me, but why are these duplicates a problem? I just don’t get what the issue is here.

If the same individual is seen by different observers using different pics, there is no issue. If the same pic is uploaded by different observers without permission, this is an issue, and all but the original pic can be flagged for copyright. Occasional user of others’ pics with permission is allow…

Do you identify for others? (Yes, I see you do) If the field marks are scattered across various obs - which, because they are scattered, may attract various different IDs = lots of extra work for burnt out identifiers. The identifier asks - does it have a red chest, blue feet, a long curved beak ?…

[image] DianaStuder: Wait! I have already IDed that one … yup = Duplicate, sometimes even 3 or 4. Sometimes even up to 100!

Presence data is unavoidably biased by the observers and how busy they are. If they’re going to the same spot every day and observing the same bird each time, it’s valid for those all to be separate observations (and I don’t think you should be bugging them into deleting them). I don’t think it’s w…

The other side of the split vs lump for multiple images is what if you watch a butterfly or cicada emerge over several hours? You might well get interesting things to see that merit different observations and stringing them all into one kind of breaks the “point in time” assumption about observation…

I think this can be an issue if someone wants to use the data for research purposes. In these case, it would be necessary, and probably feasible, to gather all the observations of the same species placed in a circle of n meters radius. In other cases, maybe, it could be better to leave this issue b…

I’ve never see more than a few duplicates of a single individual by the same observer on the same date. If it “wastes my time” then it is only seconds.

How can you treat multiple observations that depict the same individual?

General

huttonia July 12, 2024, 1:18pm 7

Sometimes even up to 100!

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How can you treat multiple observations that depict the same individual?

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