Ive started doing audio observations of birds and have some questions. First is it okay to add pictures of the subject? I worry that someone might see the photo and make an ID without listening to the sound file. Would it be alright to add a picture of the sound like a Spectrogram? It would make it …

I think usually it’s totally fine to add pictures alongside the recordings, as long as you’re certain that they show the same individual. I do sometimes see spectrograms uploaded also but they are a bit less accessible for ID, but it doesn’t hurt to add more context.

The observations with photo and audio thumbnail shows a speaker icon in the top right corner so identifiers will see that. Remember to leave a note as to which sound you want id’ed if there is a doubt. Join the project “Audio Observations From Around the World”.

Several days ago I found an observation with both picture and sound, which I think was already identified as a coquí. I’ve read that there are two species with similar sound, but I’ve heard only the common coquí in the wild, having been in San Juan and the nearby coast. The other species lives at hi…

It’s totally fine to add a picture of the subject, but I would guess that many users might just look at the pic, especially if it is “first”. Staff have asked users not to upload spectrograms for a variety of reasons, here’s one response from them: [image] Automatically add a spectrogram view to…

I’ve posted a few birds and a couple of frogs (including a coqui) where I was able to record their song with my cellphone and get photos of the calling individual. Not always easily done unless the animal is calling regularly and gives you time to juggle a camera and a phone to record sound. Som…

Important context to that quote: [image] Automatically add a spectrogram view to observations with sounds I didn’t say it was an official position. It is my opinion. If we on staff thought this was a serious problem we would build tools to support or suppress these kinds of images, or at least i…

Something that is not clear in the question or the replies: It’s perfectly ok to add a picture of the bird that you saw singing (making sure it was that bird making the sound, of course), but do not add a “generic” picture of the bird species to illustrate the sound. Both audio and photographs shou…

Field drawings/sketches are allowed on iNat, though they should be made in the field and not from memory. [image] Naelin: if it were an official position (Thank you @dhasdf for the context) it would throw into the trash every single observation of scat, tracks, molts, nests, webs, etc. This …

If you upload just audio as evidence and you provide the initial ID to species, then identifiers will know what you’re trying to ID. No photo needed. If you’re unsure the ID, identifiers of audio enjoy if you indicate what you want identified in the audio, such as “the noise from 6 seconds to 13 sec…

If you get good photos of the calling animal and an audio, it probably doesn’t matter if the ID is made just from the photos. I like to get both if I find a singing bird that is cooperative, mainly so I have a record of its song for my own use. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/164431891

Question About Audio Observations

General

tiwane April 22, 2025, 9:53pm 15

I’m pretty sure Merlin is computervision, it’s been trained on spectrograms and not actual audio files. I remember years ago when we discussed training a model for audio, the inclusion of time in audio makes things much more complicated.

Topic		Replies	Views
Screenshot from a bird voice identification app as a photo General question	8	1359	June 22, 2023
Audio recordings of bird song/calls General	53	4911	March 10, 2023
Automatically add a spectrogram view to observations with sounds Feature Requests under-review	53	7028	September 18, 2025
Paste image onto observation? General	8	523	September 3, 2024
Spectrograph allowed? General question , audio-observations	5	1404	May 8, 2022

Question About Audio Observations

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