:seedling: If you have an observation that started off as an unknown or mis-ID and turned into something really cool after help from the iNat community please share.

We looked for this again yesterday - but without flowers - couldn’t find it. Previously observed, just there, in 2014. 8 obs on my Cape Peninsula.

This madtom , I had no idea what species it was first, at first it got identified as a mountain madtom, which didn’t look quite right to me but I didn’t know enough to challenge the ID. Then later it was identified as the very rare yellowfin madtom, which was pretty cool, probably my rarest fish

I can’t think of any of those that are mine, but since I doubt @dongminsung will post here, I’ll add the most famous mis-ID-to-fun-observation of them all for them. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/5890862 Go ahead. Click it. Nothing will happen to your device or sanity. …

I think this fits ? A bird that started as an unknown and a good example of why moving things out of unknown can be worthwhile, even if 99% of the time they’re made by new users who don’t add an initial ID.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/80972437 This bug that I couldn’t really figure out but thought might be a velvet ant turned out to be the first (and so far only) observation of them on INat, and appears to be the only online photo of one alive. I’d call that pretty good.

This Soldier Fly that I originally IDed as a wasp. A very convincing mimic, I’m usually not to bad at spotting the flies but this one had me fooled

Your Best Unknown Turned ID Story

Nature Talk

DianaStuder June 12, 2025, 4:47pm 5

https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-to-get-rid-of-updates-of-https-www-inaturalist-org-observations-5890862/48695

You have caught 2 …

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Your Best Unknown Turned ID Story

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