Diario de clockwood

You're looking at someone else's observation of a bug. This bug is sitting on a plant! You want to know what the plant is. Here's my process for finding out.

This assumes you are using the iNaturalist website, not the mobile app. This also assumes you have a general knowledge of plant distinguishing features.

1. From the observation page, right-click the "1123 observations" below their username and open it in a new tab/page.
2. Open the search filters, and filter by the exact date that the original observation was made.
3. Open the map view. This will show you the observations that that person made on the same day as the bug. They are most likely in the same general area. If they are a hundred miles apart because the person was on a road trip, just zoom in on the area where the original observation was.
4. Click "redo search in map area." This doesn't make a difference right now but comes into play later.
5. Fill in the taxon search field with Flowering Plants.

Now you can look through the Species tab for plants that look similar to the one you're trying to identify.

If there aren't any results that look close:

• Change the date filter from "exact date" to "month"
• Make the map search area a little larger (if you just click "redo search in map area" multiple times, it gets slightly larger each time -- at least on my computer)
• Remove the username filter to show results from other users

If there are too many results to sort through:

• Fill the taxon search field with something more specific than Flowering Plants

(all of this is satire, please don't do any of these things)

1. Never zoom or crop your photos. Identifiers actually hate IDing things and would much rather be playing Where's Waldo finding one tiny ant in your wide lens photo of your whole garden.
2. Save time by uploading multiple species per observation. This is absolutely how the website was designed to be used, muddies no data and confuses no one.
3. When people ask you which of the species in your post the observation is meant to be for, be as rude as possible to them. I mean, trying to identify things that are posted on a website based around identifying things, show up in Identify, and are labeled as Needs ID? Who even does that? Nobody you want to be associated with.
4. Never put broad categories like "Plants" on your observations. They're much more helpful and more likely to be seen if they are languishing in the wasteland of Unknown for months or years.
5. If you didn't get an ID the first time you posted an observation, try posting the exact same picture multiple times. Bonus points if you do it across multiple observations.