What is iNaturalist?

posted 3/18/22 by Anna Gdalevich

Have you ever taken a walk and wondered about the different species of plants and animals you see around you? Or seen a plant and wanted to know if it's native to the area? Or seen a weird bug and just wanted to know what on Earth it is? Then iNaturalist is the app for you!

Identifying things through the app is simple, just click the green “plus” button and take or upload a photo of whatever you wish to identify. You can even upload a sound recording for identification! After you upload your media for identification, tap on “What did you see?” to view the app's identification suggestions. iNaturalist will instantly give you a list of visually similar species to choose from, with the most similar being at the top. The app uses an image search to find visually similar species and uses data from others’ observations to make a more accurate identification.

After selecting a species, you can add notes and details, such as the time and location of the observation, the date, and whether it is wild or captive/cultivated. Once the observation is finished, tap the green check mark and it will be added to your observations page!

Your observations page catalogs all of the different observations you have made in your area. You can also see the number of different species you have found and the number of identifications you have made without the aid of the app’s identification system.

iNaturalist also gives you the opportunity to see others’ observations! Simply go to the

“Explore” tab and select any observation that interests you. You can see where it was found and the quality of the data. You can also add some annotations to the observation.

You can join projects and find like-minded people to share observations with! Simply go to the “Projects” tab and browse through featured or nearby projects or do a search if you have a specific one in mind.

To see specific kinds of observations, you can look in the “Guides” tab for collections of similar observations, such as this guide for birds in Erie, NY.

In your “Activity” tab, you can see people who have commented on your observations and suggested identifications, who is following you, and recent environmental news.

If you would like a challenge, check out the “Missions” tab! During missions, you try to identify as many species of a certain category as you can, such as identifying as many plants as you can.

iNaturalist provides many different ways for the user to learn more about the different species around them and connect with others. It is a very accessible and fun way for everyone to learn about all the different living things on Earth and help scientists track where these species are observed.