# Search for multiple areas + multiple taxa | gone slightly wrong **URL:** \ **Category:** General\ **Created:** [September 8, 2019, 6:03am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/search-for-multiple-areas-multiple-taxa-gone-slightly-wrong/6360 "2019-09-08T06:03:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![housecrows](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/housecrows/32/1669_2.png) [@housecrows](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/housecrows)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2019, 6:03am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/search-for-multiple-areas-multiple-taxa-gone-slightly-wrong/6360/1 "2019-09-08T06:03:03Z")
I’m using inaturalist to share my European and Japanese records mostly to increase and train my knowledge of Japanese wildlife. I found that ID’-ing other people’s records is a great way to train yourself too. I’ve been testing the multiple areas-search and my standard query upto now was insect+birds in 4 countries. But then I thought it wise to further zoom in and concentrate on the taxa that i know something about: birds, butterflies and moths and dragonflies. I came up with an url that should filter those in for Japan, the Netherlands, South Korea and Taiwan (covering my home country, Japan and its closer - and smallest -neighbours) [https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place\_id=6891,7887,7506,6737&subview=grid&iconic\_taxon\_ids=3,47157,47792](https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=6891,7887,7506,6737&subview=grid&iconic_taxon_ids=3,47157,47792) 3 = birds 47792 = dragonflies and damselflies 47157= butterflies and moths I did something wrong because plants are also included in the results of that query. Do you happen to know what I did wrong here? hope to hear from you cheers Housecrows ---
**Author:** ![JayAvery](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/jayavery/32/2917_2.png) [@JayAvery](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/JayAvery)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2019, 6:23am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/search-for-multiple-areas-multiple-taxa-gone-slightly-wrong/6360/2 "2019-09-08T06:23:01Z")
Replace `iconic_taxon_ids` with `taxon_ids`! [https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place\_id=6891,7887,7506,6737&subview=grid&taxon\_ids=3,47157,47792](https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=6891,7887,7506,6737&subview=grid&taxon_ids=3,47157,47792) :) ---
**Author:** ![housecrows](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/housecrows/32/1669_2.png) [@housecrows](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/housecrows)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2019, 6:32am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/search-for-multiple-areas-multiple-taxa-gone-slightly-wrong/6360/3 "2019-09-08T06:32:32Z")
thanks Jay, i’ve been looking at that label ‘iconic’ but didn’t think it would include plants automatically… Of course it’s just a small error in my string… Thanks again cheers H ---
**Author:** ![JayAvery](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/jayavery/32/2917_2.png) [@JayAvery](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/JayAvery)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2019, 6:36am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/search-for-multiple-areas-multiple-taxa-gone-slightly-wrong/6360/4 "2019-09-08T06:36:08Z")
No problem. :) “Iconic taxa” means the big groups you can choose by clicking the pictures (icons!) - like birds, fungi, etc. There are only twelve of those, so I guess giving bigger numbers in the list just confuses the system and it loops around and settles on plants. ---
**Author:** ![housecrows](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/housecrows/32/1669_2.png) [@housecrows](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/housecrows)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2019, 6:53am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/search-for-multiple-areas-multiple-taxa-gone-slightly-wrong/6360/5 "2019-09-08T06:53:29Z")
I thought i might add to that, but no… (i thought maybe 4 was plants (as 3 is birds) but 4 is a bird-subgroup… thanks for that too have a good rest of this weekend Housecrows ---
**Author:** ![jdmore](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/jdmore/32/1116_2.png) [@jdmore](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/jdmore)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2019, 7:12am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/search-for-multiple-areas-multiple-taxa-gone-slightly-wrong/6360/6 "2019-09-08T07:12:20Z")
If you use the Filters on [https://www.inaturalist.org/observations](https://www.inaturalist.org/observations), and select some iconic taxa (=“Categories”), you will see in the resulting URL that the parameter used is `&iconic_taxa=` and it only accepts one or more of the following text labels: `unknown|Plantae|Fungi|Animalia|Mollusca|Amphibia|Actinopterygii|Aves|Mammalia|Reptilia|Arachnida|Insecta|Protozoa|Chromista` So to search for the iconic taxa Birds and Insects you would include in your URL `&iconic_taxa=Aves,Insecta` - or just select them in the Filter. Because you included a URL parameter that was not recognized in this context, the system just ignored it and returned all the observations from the listed places, which added mostly plants, apparently. ---
**Author:** ![housecrows](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/housecrows/32/1669_2.png) [@housecrows](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/housecrows)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2019, 4:55pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/search-for-multiple-areas-multiple-taxa-gone-slightly-wrong/6360/7 "2019-09-08T16:55:06Z")
Ok, that’s a sound explanation. Jay’s link works a treat, I will use that from now on when I am a bit more adventurous than normal (usually i check mainly dutch and japanese records. cheers all, housecrows. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/inaturalist/original/2X/7/7831452cf7f0d653ff1ffd34176334b7ef1b6a17.png) [@system](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 5:09pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/search-for-multiple-areas-multiple-taxa-gone-slightly-wrong/6360/8 "2019-11-07T17:09:40Z")
Closed on November 7, 2019, 5:09pm UTC This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.