Gray Catbirds (Dumetella Carolinensis), Taken April 27, 2024, In Georgia, US

the ant people are the only ones on inaturalist that consistently use the "favorites" button. unfortunately the rest of us don't know their secrets so there will be like, dozens of faves on a picture of an ant and i am like why is the ant so special. teach us to see the beauty of the ant.

A reminder: if you were taught that mosquitoes in general are useless to the environment and could be eliminated “without consequence”, then you were taught incorrectly. People still regularly comment this silly notion on my posts with absolute confidence. Our goal is reducing risk to humans, NOT eliminating the dangerous animal altogether.

You don’t have to like irritating, gross, or dangerous animals (most people do not), but if you are ever arguing for the extinction of an entire animal species try to remember the natural world is unfathomably complex in ways none of us can predict.

Lesser Anglewings (Microcentrum retinerve), nymphs, taken May 2, 2025, in Georgia, US

Katydids in their awkward baby phase! Their legs are so spindly and long as young nymphs, kind of like a horse foal. Even though their limbs are a bit too long, they are still very nimble and navigate the tall grasses with ease. Alongside these guys, I'm also seeing lots of meadow katydid nymphs which will eventually become short-winged and handsome meadow katydids, though it's impossible to tell which at their current age!

Brown Thrasher (Toxostoma rufum), taken May 27, 2024, in Georgia, US

Behold, the Georgia state bird! Quite pretty, but also will throw all of your woodchips/mulch onto the sidewalk to get to the tasty bugs inside. I suppose they're living up to their name by giving the landscape a thrashing...

iNaturalist New User Guide: FAQ

[If you haven’t joined iNaturalist, you should! It’s a great way to learn about the wildlife around you and contribute to citizen science]

This guide will be consistently updated as I write more posts/receive more questions. This is intended to be a basic jumping off point, with some links to more detailed guides(when I write them). If there is something you would like a more in-depth answer on, feel free to contact me directly!

Account Basics

Do I need to be a biologist/naturalist/professional or have experience with wildlife to join iNaturalist?

Nope! iNaturalist is for everybody, and is in fact founded on the principle that you do not need to be a professional researcher in order to contribute to science

Do I have to make an account under my real name? 

Also no. You will see a lot of people on iNaturalist doing this, but it isn’t required. Do as much as you are comfortable with

Posting Observations

[More in-depth guide TBA]

What is required to post an observation? 

In order for an observation to be eligible to become Research Grade, it needs to include three things: media(a photo or audio recording), location, and date. You CAN post an observation without these things, but it will be considered Casual.

What does Research Grade/Casual/Needs ID mean?

Research Grade(RG) means that an eligible observation has at least 2 identifications, and 2/3rds of those identifications agree on a species. As stated above, in order to be eligible for research grade, an observation needs to include media, date, and location. Research grade observations are, as the name implies, able to be used in research by relevant professionals. 

Needs ID means that an observation is eligible to become research grade, but does not yet have a 2/3rds consensus on species

Casual means that an observation is not able to be used in research. There are three main reasons an observation will be marked Casual. One, it is missing media/date/location. Two, it is a captive observation. Three, the user has opted out of community ID. 

What is a captive observation? 

An observation is marked captive when the organism depicted is owned and cared for by humans with no intention of release. Common examples are pets, garden plants, and zoo animals. Captive does not apply to feral domesticated species, wildlife taken to rehab centers, invasive species, or plants that have spread beyond gardens into unmaintained land. Captive observations are not eligible to become RG. 

I want to contribute to research, but I don’t want to post my exact location

iNaturalist allows you to set the location visibility on each observation to obscured, which displays the observations location as a 400 km^2 bounding box. You can also choose to assign locations manually instead of via image metadata, and thus set the “confidence interval” fairly large, such as encompassing your entire city. 

Can I post dead things? 

Yes. Several projects actually utilize iNaturalist to keep track of species mortality causes. You do not have to censor anything, but some users will upload a cover image that states “Dead Observation”. This is a matter of individual user’s comfort levels. 

I don’t know what it is, what do I put in the initial ID box when submitting?

ID it to the level you’re confident about. You shouldn’t leave it at “unknown” unless you are 100% unsure of what kind of lifeform it is. Initial IDs can be as general as “birds” “mammals” “plants” and so on. These generic categories help put your observation in the sights of more experienced identifiers. While some users do dedicate time to sorting observations marked “unknown”, they are much less likely to be seen. 

Identifications

[More in-depth guide TBA]

Someone left an ID on my observation, should I agree with them?

If you have reasons to be confident that their ID is correct, yes. Otherwise, just leave it. Erroneous agrees can lead to incorrect RG status. 

Someone disagreed with my ID and I don’t know why

Ask! Most identifiers are happy to explain their reasoning for an identification, and you don’t have to agree with them, you can simply let your own ID stand and allow other identifiers to chime in. 

It’s been a while and nobody has contributed an ID to my observation

Unfortunately that happens, especially in taxonomic groups where less experts are active on iNaturalist. A few ways you can attempt to remedy this are submitting the observation to projects or tagging identifiers in the observation(a good place to start is the “top identifiers” leaderboard that will show up in the bottom right corner in desktop). And you can also consider researching that organism yourself! 

Community Etiquette 

Do I need to speak formally? 

No, but you should treat it like a polite public conversation

Can I swear?

I wouldn’t recommend it, you’ll probably get suspended 

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (Polioptila caerulea), male, taken March 21, 2025, in Georgia, US

A fun new birding lifer for me! This guy was a pain to photograph, though that's only partially because he was flitting around constantly and mostly because the sun was making it hard to see if my camera was in focus or not :'). I got some nice pictures, though, and a video of him singing I have to review. This bird's song is so quiet that I'm not even sure my camera picked it up over the ambiance. It's like a whisper!

Downy Woodpeckers (Dryobates pubescens), males (1 & 3) and female (2), taken February 10, 2025, in Georgia, US

Their youthful looks and shiny eyes captivate me... They just make such good photos lol! There's so many of them here that I honestly don't know how often I'm photographing the same individual. The male here is the same one, but once they leave the feeder it's impossible to keep track!

Metric Paper Wasp (Polistes metricus), taken April 18, 2025, in Georgia, US

A beautiful, sleek wasp in the afternoon sun! This individual was an extremely good sport and let me get in very close for photos! Typically, paper wasps are a bit skittish and prefer to keep their distance, but this one just seemed curious. It's always a good day when a wasp stops buzzing around and lets me get some nice pictures! They're usually so busy that it's impossible to get anything!

Went out somewhere new yesterday and was lucky enough to bump into both forms of Maevia expansa male! Top images are the "tufted" morph and bottom are the "gray" morph.

They look absolutely nothing alike, and both males even use different courtship rituals to attract females! Like I've said before, the easiest way to differentiate this species from the much more common M. inclemens is to look for the bold white markings around the eyes of M. expansa, which are displayed in the pictures I have provided. The white is very bright and obvious, which makes distinction very easy, especially since jumpers love to look at you head-on!

Jumping Spider (Maevia expansa), female, taken May 8, 2025, in Georgia, US

A curious jumper making her way along a twig! She was not very happy with me but ultimately cooperated enough to get a single good picture. Like the Dimorphic Jumping Spider (Maevia inclemens), this spider's males have two different morphs: a "gray" morph that is gray with black stripes and bright orange palps and a "tufted" morph that is black with white legs and 3 black tufts of hairs above its eyes. The males of the species look nothing alike, which may cause them to be misidentified. This species can be differentiated from M. inclemens by the presence of white patterning on the head of the female and around the eyes of the males. You can also use locality, as they have currently only been found in Georgia and once in Tennessee.

Rufous-backed Cellophane Bee (Colletes thoracicus), female, taken April 19, 2025, in Georgia, US

The best photo I've gotten so far of one of the most frustrating subjects. There are currently hundreds of cellophane bees swarming in an area of my woods. New adults are emerging and in the process of recreating all of their parents' nest holes. Many would disagree, but there's something calming about sitting in the center of hundreds of buzzing bees, especially when you know they won't hurt you! The only bad thing about these guys is that they hate to sit still. Any time they land to inspect a prospective nest site, they do so fleetingly. There are so many bees that many are willing to fight for good spots, and males are simultaneously trying to mate with females that land for too long. It's chaos, but the welcome kind!