How to deal with wrong ID + opt-out-of-community-ID + no interest in changing ID?

There’s no need to “keep identifiers busy” by intentionally creating more work for them – there is no shortage of observations in need of ID as it is, even in taxa where there are plenty of IDers.

I realize that sometimes it may seem like bird IDers are just waiting for observations that they can ID, but I would note that at the time of writing there are over a million bird observations with a status of “needs ID” worldwide; in the United States there are over 400,000. Obviously some portion of these observations are difficult and may never reach research grade, but it is far from the case that there is nothing for IDers to do. And if people should happen to find that there are no more “needs ID” observations in their preferred taxa/region – well, it’s easy enough to find other ways to help out.

I agree with Diana: please consider making a few IDs yourself. I think it’s normal to lack confidence at first, but there are lots of ways you can help out that are “low risk” and provide you an opportunity to improve your skills and gain confidence. If you know enough to deliberately mis-ID some of your own observations, then you know enough to correctly ID other people’s observations of some species.

You don’t have to be an “expert” to ID. All you need to start is one or two species you know well. Or if you recognize broad categories (mammals, amphibians, arthropods, etc.) you can help with unknowns. And if sometimes you make mistakes – well, consider that even experienced IDers occasionally make IDs where we wonder afterwards what we were thinking. It comes with the territory. The way to get better at IDing is through doing it, and learning along the way, and sometimes being corrected.

I do think it’s useful for observers to see the other side of things by IDing at least occasionally (and vice versa). I also find that IDing makes me a better observer – because I know what features to try to photograph, or because going through unknowns/observations with broad IDs makes me aware of organisms that I didn’t know existed and hadn’t previously paid attention to.

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