Identifiers: Read the notes!

[AdamWargon]

What Bobby said:

@yayemaster

I always respect the notes

Reminded me of a recent post by David:

@david99

Being an eBird reviewer, I experience the full gamut of notes on observations of birds. They range from “seen well” to 5,000 characters describing the bird, complete with 10 full frame photos.

Many times the observer describes the bird, then attaches a picture of the bird that does not match the description they wrote. Usually it’s subtle details like bill shape or fine plumage details, but sometimes the colors completely don’t match, yet the observer is 100% confident that the bird they photographed is the same one they are describing.

It’s not just new or inexperienced birders that fall victim to this, even veteran birders with far more experience and knowledge than me have also shown me photos that don’t match their description. That makes me very hesitant to accept details provided by an observer in iNaturalist, unless they are very detailed and precise. Having gone through a few hundred thousand iNaturalist observations of birds, I will sometimes confirm an observation that’s borderline identifiable from the images based on observer notes, but only if it’s something that’s already known to be in that area.