Platform: Website
Browser: Chrome
URLs of any relevant observations or pages: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/upload
Screenshots of what you are seeing:
Description of problem:
Step 1: Go to https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/upload
Step 2: Make an observation with photo
Step 3: Add a location
Step 4: Click to enter identification
As you can see in the screenshots, it only shows Visually Similar suggestions, although I have entered a location and there are RG chickadee observations literally within 30 feet of it. Same problem with all other obs in this upload.
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FYI – I too am having the same issue with both the app (iPhone) and the website (Chrome). Some species do show “seen nearby” but others that have indeed been documented nearby (research grade) lack that.
Ex: this red tailed hawk, which is quite documented in DFW, does not have “seen nearby” on the visual suggestions.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/68176198
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I think in order for it to be “seen nearby,” there has to be the same species observed within X miles AND observed within 45 days of the current observation. Is it possible that none of the nearby observations have been within that window?
I have also heard it suggested to make the “seen nearby” radius smaller, which I think is generally a good idea, but I don’t know if that’s been implemented yet or even what the current radius is.
I’m pretty sure that in my example of the red tailed hawk, it’s been observed mighty close and quite recently (it’s a super common hawk here in TX). I’ve been continually noticing the lack of “seen nearby” in other observations of mine.
Here’s another example from today that didn’t get the “seen nearby” suggestion:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/68249705
I would hope that the radius of research grade observations would be enough to catch this one as “seen nearby” as well.
I’m also having this issue using the Android app - suggestions say “Visually Similar” but none say “Seen Nearby.” I’m taking photos of very common species, like Coast Redwoods and Valley Oaks, and in the SF Bay Area, California, where they’ve definitely been seen nearby.
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This should now be resolved thanks to updates from @pleary. Thanks for reporting!
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