An observation records an encounter with an individual organism at a particular time and location. — https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/help#observations1 There have been several parallel discussions about defining an observation, so here’s a place to host those.

What about photos with two species in it: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/9030594 This observations shows Bombus affinis on Eutrochium purpureum, currently the observation is a research grade observation of Bombus affinis, and the ID for the plant is in the observation fields section. How…

[image] alexis18: should there be two observations, one with the plant ID and one with the insect ID? Yep, the user can use the duplicate feature to quickly create a second observation for the plant, if they’re interested.

[image] Use computer vision to annotate observations When I go to the provincial park where I will be tomorrow, I will likely see 200+ Yellow Warblers. I’m not recording 200+ observations, or even one for every separate individuaI I photograph. Of course if I record 1 record and enter a count ob…

I dont dispute the fact inaturalist can and should be used for abundance data. I wish it were in fact. What I dispute is that the optimal way to record having seen 200 of the same warbler species in the same park is to record 200 separate records.

I agree that it’s impractical to have 200 of essentially the same observations. Perhaps a feature request could be an “abundance” tag to go with the “life stage” & “sex” tags.

It has been rejected multiple times by the site. They will not implement that feature.

I think observations are a way for people to “share what they are seeing”, a place to converse and learn about them, and an opportunity for science to capitalise with a data point. When we start talking about whether we have to count everything we see, just imagine that you have been invited on a b…

That’s exactly why I said this: [image] earthknight: In practice I take iNat observations to be of the presence/absence type because there is no consistency in how observations are made… some make independent observations for every photo of the same individual, others make on observation of a s…

yes, it has been discussed before about adding “count” annotations, but I think annotations have to be discrete (ie set values) rather than scalars. [0 | 1 | some | heaps] would be doable! I take it you are using the @ as an indicator of “approximately”? I have always used the tilde (~) character …

I do think this is an excellent point for data users: inaturalist effort is not standardized across observer type, which is something rarely accounted for in analyses

What is an observation?

General

Topic		Replies	Views
Should I post multiple observations of same species or possibly same individuals at same location at different hours or days? General question	25	3738	March 4, 2021
Excessive observing? General	86	7465	February 13, 2024
Multiple organisms in one observation General	30	1124	August 7, 2025
Observing populations, not just individuals General	18	2464	November 11, 2019
How many of the same species do I post if I see it on a regular basis? General	43	4761	November 8, 2019

What is an observation?

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