Hey everyone! I’m trying to start a guide for the ID A Thon on the forum with everyone’s input! Please share ID tips, tricks, priorities, etc. to help both new and experienced identifiers learn new things for the ID-A-Thon

Thanks! I had thought that Unknowns were a minor part of the Needs ID pile, but I am wrong. If this link is correct - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?iconic_taxa=unknown&identified=false&place_id=any&quality_grade=needs_id - Unknowns are more than one-third of Needs ID observations. That’s…

[image] lynnharper: 585,868 Unknowns are 0.0054% of the 108,406,822 Needs ID observations @lynnharper it’s actually 0.54%, or 1 in 185 Needs IDs are UNKs. Still a shockingly high percentage, where all someone has to do is add a general ID to not make it an unknown.

[image] jhbratton: I’d say if you have a taxonomic specialism, deal with those first That’s what I’m planning! I’ll be working through as many spiders as I can!

Do you happen to know if there’s a simple way to filter out certain categories at a lower level? For example, so I could look at all needs ID plants in my area except grasses? It seems like there should be, but I’ve been unable to find such an option. I understand that in the example above, I wou…

Oh, that’s funny - clearly, my math skills are shockingly low right now.

Even if you have no idea what the observation is, please add some annotations if you can so that the specialist IDer can find those observations eg eggs, Larvae, tracks, scat, juvenile.

While getting “unknowns” out of the pit of doom is helpful, I personally just want people find a strategy that works for them, and that hopefully they can continue and grow in using beyond the ID a thon. That includes folks who know grasses backwards and front, or are really good at identifying bird…

This!!! Thank you for bringing this up. I do this when working with unknowns and it’s a really easy thing to do while you’re in the observation.

[image] asteroidowl: observations with more than one organism We have a (newish) DQA for that which pushes the obs to Casual. I also leave a copypasta comment - hoping the observer will respond, but at least warning the next identifier. I also leave ‘opted out’ comments. [image] donna165…

ID A Thon Unofficial Guide

General

lynnharper December 13, 2025, 10:53pm 26

Perhaps use this exclusion metthod? https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-to-use-inaturalists-search-urls-wiki-part-2-of-2/18792

Try https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?verifiable=true&place_id=any&without_taxon_id=47434 .

Topic		Replies	Views
Amount of "Unknown" records is decreasing General	555	39317	July 8, 2021
Does anyone else get bothered by how many observations are marked as "unknown species"? General question	231	9632	December 27, 2022
Thoughts on unknown ID level? General	59	1472	October 9, 2025
Should I give up identifying unknowns? General question	117	4551	March 11, 2025
Identifying taxa just to remove them from "unknown" General	42	3260	October 27, 2022

ID A Thon Unofficial Guide

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