Hello, I am very new here, but don’t want to start out by being overly annoying with duplicate copies of the same photo in my observations. I’m just unclear on what to do if there are several animals/birds in one photo. For instance: I have a photo with 3 American Coots in it; an adult and 2 juveni…

Definitely not as three separate observations. If there are multiple specimens of the same species and at the same life stage in the photo, then there really is no reason to post it multiple times as separate observations for each specimen. You can create separate observations for the adult and the …

[image] konrad_k: Definitely not as three separate observations. Why is that? On the contrary… As is stated here: https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/help#observations1 An observation records an encounter with an individual organism at a particular time and location. So, if she wants, she ca…

Yes strictly speaking each observation should depict a single individual. In practice people don’t always do that (myself included). That’s not to say that you can’t post group photos. For example you might have a couple of detailed or close up shots of an individual, and include a group shot to sh…

Ok, I can agree that in some cases, creating separate observations for each individual in the photo may be justified, but it must be a good reason. Otherwise, it’s simply pointless. An example from the OP’s observations: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/83901946 https://www.inaturalist.or…

Observer always can write a description or alter photo to show which specimen is observation about, then it’s in iNat rules that you can do it, there’s no reason to not do it if a user wants to.

[image] konrad_k: How does that “give much more info than just one single observation”? In my opinion, the biggest downside of iNat is that we don’t have a way to actually count individuals. Having a count gives much more info than the mere signaling of the presence of a given species at a gi…

As appealing as getting more details like counts and population density is, it demands a lot more effort and expertise than what can be expected of the activities that iNat thrives on. Anybody, of any experience can observe and contribute, even if they know nothing about what they’re observing. A p…

The original intent of this website in the interest of science is to record observations of organisms in a certain location and time to provide more information on the species’ whereabouts and population. This would mean that the most important pieces of info are time, location, proper ID, and count…

It probably makes a lot more sense to treat an encounter with a group as a single observation. It is not useful to see 20 observations of the same group of tadpoles. If people feel strongly about this, it wouldn’t be difficult to add an optional field for the number of individuals observed (which …

[image] joedziewa: As appealing as getting more details like counts and population density is, it demands a lot more effort and expertise than what can be expected of the activities that iNat thrives on. I understand that and I’m not saying that should be mandatory, but it would be nice to ha…

Multiple birds in the same photo - do I post individually? - #24 by system - General

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Multiple organisms in one observation General	30	1145	August 7, 2025
How many of the same species do I post if I see it on a regular basis? General	43	4772	November 8, 2019
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What is an observation? General	46	7659	September 24, 2021
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