I know of at least one project by an iNaturalist user that aimed to document the most commonly observed species for each state (if someone could link to that thread, that would be wonderful). Would be interesting to know whether Randall Monroe reads the iNaturalist forum or just pulled each state manually.
Anyway, hopefully this leads to some more science nerds learning about iNaturalist and maybe even joining!
I just came here to share this :D
Love it!
Was…was… xkcd inspired by these?!?
That would be quite an honor!
Most Common Research Grade Bird Observations (Maps)
Most Common Research Grade Insect/Arachnid Observations (Maps)
Funny, the only reason Mallard got knocked out of the top 2 for Oregon is that two observers have added 9300 of the 12850 or so observations of Western Ponderosa Pine
I’m in Michigan and I’m lagging on common milkweed because I don’t post the plant as often as it appears, but more often as a host!
The Northern White-tailed Deer are sitting at third because the Asian Ladybeetles invade my space and the dimorphic jumping spiders are almost daily on my out-door…
So I have to say it must be right! Fun!
I think it was Pacific Trillium that got bumped to Oregon’s #2 (in plants) by the copious observations of Western Ponderosa Pine. The Mule Deer appear to have ousted the Mallards legitimately.
WE HAVE INSPIRED xkcd!!!
That’s awesome! It’s hilarious that Munroe finally does an Inat xkcd!
Creosote Bush and Saguaro in the Western US is heavily influenced by one user which is crazy.
Same with my home state NY, where three users have combined for 13K observations of Ageratina altissima. Without a doubt Artemisia vulgaris is the most common plant in the state.
Fowler’s Toad as #1 animal in Delaware is interesting (from one user with a lot of observations).
Also Eastern Pondhawk for Ohio. In fact, six of the top ten observed species in Ohio are odonates. There are nearly fifty observers in Ohio with over 1,000 Odonata observations, and four with over 10,000 (in comparison, all the neighboring states each have at most one observer with over 1,000 observations). Remarkable! Had no idea Ohio was such an odonatophile paradise.
Super cool!
Largely thanks to @jimlem and @malisaspring and the Ohio Odonata Survey! I love that looking up observations in map view of many midwestern odes causes the state of Ohio to show up in nearly solid red, thanks to the efforts of our zealous odonata observers :)
Awesome! It would be cool to try to find each of these species as a challenge. Thanks Randall!
I’ve contributed at least one of the two for MI, WV, NY, NJ, FL, and AZ. For the other states I’ve visited I was either only briefly travelling through, or mostly spent time in unusual habitats away from population centres. Interesting to see which ones I’ve missed; I’ve only driven through WV and made a brief rest stop but have observed both species there, while I’ve driven through PA multiple times and either didn’t see or neglected to observe either species there.
Jealous of all the states that have cool lizards or box turtles as their most observed animal.
And here I was just thinking: now I have a guide to what NOT to observe in each state! (Too late for some of them, though.)
Yikes! I feel like I’m going overboard if I post more than two or three of the same species, and they’re not even commonly observed species.
I’ve observed a Christmas fern, but no squirrels, and eastern poison ivy, but no ducks. I have, though, observed green anoles, which are the most observed in some other states.
I ran a participatory science project focused on bees in Missouri. ~6000/8700 of the top ranked animal (Bombus griseocollis; brown-belted bumblebee) are from participants in our project. Pretty neat if you ask me!
In Nevada, 10,667 of 14,042 observations of creosote bush are from this user. That is real dedication.
xkcd 
In October 2018, New York Botanical Garden ran an “ecoquest” asking people to document White Snakeroot (Ageratina altissima) in the five boroughs of New York City, and that month-long event is responsible for more than 16,000 of New York state’s 25,000 all-time observations of this species. Of the 16,000+ observations that month, 5,800 observations were made by one user (mostly in Central Park and the NYBG grounds) and 8,929 were made by the next four users in line after that.
Added to some of the other examples cited above, this indicates that the “most observed species” stats aren’t necessarily just roll-ups of whatever species a large number of people independently observe most frequently through time and space.