A common question for people new to iNaturalist is how to get additional identifications (IDs) on your observations. There isn’t one quick answer, and in fact there have been several forum topics discussing this already*. Here are the most common suggestions, gathered into one list.
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Provide all the necessary information to make your observation “Needs ID” – date, location on map, photos/sounds. Observations missing this information are “Casual” and much less likely to get identified.
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Try to get the photos/sounds needed to identify your taxon. For example, if the tail needs to be visible to identify it to species, you shouldn’t expect species IDs if your photo doesn’t show the tail. If you’re not sure what’s needed, try to get multiple angles/views and something for scale. Simple photo editing can also help, e.g. cropping, lightening, etc. See more tips/discussion, including taxon-specific photo recommendations, here and here.
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Add your own ID at the narrowest level you feel comfortable with, for example “plants” or “beetles”. Observations with an ID are much more likely to be identified.
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Wait. This sounds like a joke, but IDs sometimes just take time. Maybe it’s the busy field season for most of the experts in this taxon, or maybe there’s someone who only IDs once a month. Use the filters on the Explore page to find observations similar to yours and see how long they generally take to get IDs.
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If you observed something like an animal track, scat, or feather, add an annotation indicating so. Some identifiers will search specifically for these types of evidence of presence.
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Engage with the iNat community by joining projects, adding IDs for others, etc. When you interact with other users, it can increase the visibility of your observations and make other users more willing to help you with IDs.
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@-mention a couple top identifiers in your taxon (found in the lower right of each observation page). Be aware that they may not know your geographic area, and may not want a lot of notifications from mentions, so search specifically for identifiers of that taxon in your area and proceed with some caution. Related discussion here, including tips on how to find identifiers in your area.
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See if you can find sources outside iNat to help you learn to ID your own observations. You can then bring that knowledge back to the community and hopefully recruit additional identifiers/identifications. Some field guide suggestions can be found here and here.
Caveats/notes:
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Some taxa are never identifiable from photos/sounds alone.
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Not all geographic and taxonomic areas get the same amount of attention from identifiers. For example, most North American birds are identified very quickly, but your South American beetle observation may take a long time before someone adds an ID.
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A lack of IDs isn’t necessarily a lack of interest – it may be that no one knows what it is right now, but it could prove to be valuable to a future researcher or land manager.
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“Research Grade” actually just means “exported to GBIF” (if appropriately licensed). Any researcher can opt to use or not use any observation. Related discussion here.
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Be aware that identifiers are usually volunteers who are donating their time and expertise.
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For a more complete discussion of what to do from an identifier’s perspective, see this tutorial.