Photos and sound files of the organism itself, or sign of that organism, like tracks/scat/nests/galls are considered evidence on iNaturalist. What about other things, like: an illustration an attached description or comment by the observer describing a sound or feature not depicted in the photo sp…

to add more reason to why i would, personally, not use ebird to make an observation on inaturalist. Because ebird records are adequate for me - to know that the bird has been recorded for posterity and it need not be duplicated on inaturalist just for the sake of species building etc I have a came…

[image] ram_k: many “species” are automatically accepted due to filters setup by experts, on the other hand many species are not accepted / not confirmed for the same reason Based on this, it is probably a reasonable assumption that there is some additional number of eBird checklist taxa that…

That is true, some of them do not meet the standards set and are marked “not for public” and this data does not make it into the public domain. Usually this is people who are either new to ebirding and start putting on their entire life list on one checklist or the usual group of people for who sh…

Nothing would collapse really, having a recorder with you working all the tie would be enough to get all the sounds you heard and camera could capture everything else, silent but seen. I see tons of checklists with very doubtful birds seen, but there’s no photo, so it can’t be proved or disproved, o…

Am not going to belabour the point, or start pointing out flaws in either ebird or inaturalist. Neither platforms are perfect and both are heavily influenced by its users. And am, also, not going to “insist” that ebird records be acceptable on inaturalist. However do seem to sense a resentment …

To also say I endure my fair share of less than nice ebird users too :-)

I am helping train nature guides and nature educators – and often also request them to “triangulate” thei observations by linking it with something some one with a better device may have recorded at the same time / location/

Even with a camera and recorder constantly running, there are going to be plenty of birds seen well enough to ID but not well enough to provide documentary evidence. Most field research with birds doesn’t actually require such evidence, in fact – point counts and transect counts usually assume that …

Scientific research with professionals that can doubt themselves is one thing, but millions of regular birders uploading what they think they saw is another, of course this model works on statistics, but having 2 types of records, with and withot proof is essential in my opinion, and can be implemen…

Yes, these are different situations. However, most of the problems you described don’t really seem to occur here in the US, from what I’ve seen, and that’s where the filters and reviewers come in. (I know that e-bird initially had trouble finding people in parts of Europe willing to serve as reviewe…

What is evidence?

General

Topic		Replies	Views
How much weight should descriptions of organisms carry when IDing? General	25	650	August 28, 2024
Are drawings evidence? General	113	5761	March 31, 2025
Changing ID based on lack of evidence General	48	1739	September 18, 2020
What is an observation? General	45	7690	July 24, 2019
Observer Added Context: Is It Relevant? General	23	689	April 3, 2024

What is evidence?

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