I don’t know if this is a ‘bug’ with iNat ID, or something in my photos is triggering this… however… for nearly every single photo I load, iNat ID defaults (for some inexplicable reason) to “Ocotea bullata (Stinkwood)”. Doesn’t matter if it’s bird or butterfly or snail shell. Now, it does give me …

More details are always helpful with bug reports. What are the filenames? Are there any tags or other metadata? Check the names for the species here: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/557940-Ocotea-bullata#taxonomy-tab

Did you take all your photos in the town of Stinkwood? (Joking). Or perhaps a location with a synonymous name for that species.

I see OP’s most recent uploads are from “Laurelwood Arboretum” and “Laurelwood” is listed as a common name for this species.

There was a Feature Request activated https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/extract-species-name-from-photo-filename-upon-upload/6510 Followed by https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/opt-out-of-taxon-id-autofill-from-photo-filename-on-upload/10123 And https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/something-important-to-ke…

I wonder if you abbreviate or otherwise tweak the location name that has been added to the photo filename if that would prevent it from being used as a taxon suggestion. Would it still recognize as a taxon something like Laurlwd?

Yes, I definitely load many photos from “Laurelwood” and wasn’t aware of the connection. I was sure I was getting this error for other files besides Laurelwood, but now I’m in doubt… I will pay attention going forward. Thanks!

iNat ID defaults to Ocotea bullata regardless of what the photo is

Bug Reports

DianaStuder November 12, 2025, 1:26pm 2

This issue ?

https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/everythings-coming-up-snowflakes/60935

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iNat ID defaults to Ocotea bullata regardless of what the photo is

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