I heard and recorded audio of a loon flying over my house. This is unusual for my area. Not sure if this should be an observation or not. Just wondering if this would mess up aggregate data collections by people doing science … I searched the FAQ but did not find an answer. Thank you.

Yes, definitely add an observation for that! As long as the date and location are correct, that’s a completely acceptable use of iNaturalist and will cause no problems. The way iNat works is that people add any observations they want to from their personal experience with nature, and scientists can …

This is actually an example of an observation being incredibly important. If there are no bodies of water it would appear that a loon wouldn’t be found in the area at all but they obviously are passing through since you recorded audio of one. That’s a valuable data point.

Yes post it! Just as I post the eagles, hawks, sandhill cranes and vultures that fly over… I posted what looks to be a woodpecker, id’ed by flight pattern, too I, too, thoughts loons weren’t in my area, but there is a nearby (by flight!) lake that has some that I didn’t know!

I’ve seen plenty of picture observations of birds flying overhead. Nothing wrong with an audio observation of one. Go ahead and post it.

Photographing a flock of what I thought were geese flying overhead was how I made my first observation of Sandhill Cranes. So, yes; @fluffyinca has it covered.

Thank you for all the good comments. I have uploaded my observation.

Should birds flying overhead be reported as observations?

General

Topic		Replies	Views
Can't post sounds as observations? General question	9	148	December 4, 2025
Bird IDs from passive acoustic monitor? General question	17	560	December 15, 2025
Are observations without photos welcome? General	7	777	August 18, 2021
Inappropriate use of sounds? General	16	1423	November 20, 2020
Posting w/o photo? General	9	851	September 7, 2020

Should birds flying overhead be reported as observations?

Related topics