I sometimes upload some observations to inat, and then I check their page to see how common they are, their range and other stuff. Sometimes I see the photos posted there are heavily pixelated, blurry or noisy. If i have good photos I change them with mine or other times I find better ones on inat a…

Sometimes when I edit some moths that have a dozen or less photos, I forget to edit them when I find more observations with better quality. Also occasionally there will only be a bad photo of a specific pose for them like top down or a side view which helps for identification. I’ve also done what yo…

Yes, you are allowed to edit the taxon photos. Everything below is my opinion. People get used what the thumbnail (1st photo) looks like and don’t like that to change. Don’t change the thumbnail unless: It is very bad quality photo (focus, resolution, noise, white balance) When shrunken to thumbn…

I agree with all these and would add that for organisms that go through metamorphosis, try to be consistent with which life stage is shown in the thumbnail photo. For example, butterflies always show the adult butterfly in the thumbnail, and the caterpillar in the other taxon photos. Adding a caterp…

Good point. Also for gall forming insects showing the gall in the thumbnail rather than a cut out larva/pupa or an emerged adult. Except for gall forming moths. For plants there is no convention like this. Choice of flower, fruit, or leaf for the thumbnail is a case by case basis. And sometimes we …

And if reordering taxon photos - make sure the first 5 each show a useful and different field mark.

Showing multiple color variations in the top 5 is also helpful

Yeah, with moths there’s definitely some back-and-forth about what to show. In particular, there are species where the adult moths are inseparable, but the caterpillars are commonly encountered and more easily identified. So sometimes the caterpillars get “top billing” in the taxon photo.

Yes, photos should be edited, and the selected photos should show male, female, juvenile, egg, underside, bird in flight, flower, seed, fruit, leaves, bark etc. I wish more iNatters would go and edit photos

From iNat’s Help page ( https://help.inaturalist.org/en/support/solutions/articles/151000184018-what-guidelines-should-i-follow-when-choosing-taxon-photos- ) What guidelines should I follow when choosing taxon photos? As described here , most users (aside from relatively new accounts and/or accounts …

Species page photos etiquette?

General

jrp01 March 16, 2026, 3:24pm 4

Not on anyone observation, on the taxon page

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Species page photos etiquette?

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