You’re excited about bioblitzing, eager to visit a favorite park and see bees and butterflies, take pictures and be part of saving these amazing insects. Let’s get started!

Join

  • Download iNat to a smartphone or create an account on a computer
  • Join Pollinators of DuPage BioBlitz by searching in “projects.”
  • Click join in the upper right corner of the banner
  • Enter your iNat login name

How Do I Add Observations to iNaturalist?

There are several possible ways. For this project, using the iNaturalist application (on android or IOS ) is probably the easiest way to get the best results.

Other methods include using the SEEK application, or uploading photographs from your computer.

How do I add observations I have taken with my camera?

  • Click the “Add Observations” button (lower right)
  • Upload you picture (Drag and drop the file, select from you computer, or selected from a connected google account, etc)
  • Fill in the species name
    • When you click in the species name box, iNaturalist will make suggestions for the species. you can accept a suggested species or enter your own. in either case, iNaturalist users will either confirm the species or suggest alternatives, so it is OK to guess.
  • Fill in the date observed
  • Provide the location
    • Clicking in the location box opens a map, and you can zoom in and scroll to where you made the observation.
    • The map will show a location and a circle around the location representing the size of the area where you are sure the observation was made. Make this correspond as closely as possible to how well you have identified the location of the observation.
    • You can add notes, tags etc if you like.
    • Click “Submit”

How do I use the iNaturalist app to add an observation?

  • Click the “+” or the camera icon on the home screen
  • click the camera icon on the pop-up
  • take the best picture you can of the species you have observed
  • click “use photo” on the camera screen if the photo is good, else click “retake”
  • record the species you think you saw (click the “what did you see”) button.
    • the iNaturalist application will make suggestions for the species. you can accept a suggested species or enter your own. In either case, iNaturalist users will either confirm the species or suggest alternatives, so it is OK to guess.
  • Look at the location information box. If you have allowed the iNaturalist application to access location services on your phone, you will see a longitude, latitude, and Accuracy for your location. If you have allowed iNaturalist to access GPS data, the accuracy may improve (get smaller)if you wait a few seconds. It can take a little time for the phone’s GPS to find and synchronize with several GPS satellites. It is important to identify the location as accurately as possible, and also to identify the accuracy as closely as possible so that researchers can tell if the observation was made in the area of interest, and possibly to find the species you saw live.
  • click the “SHARE” button to send the observation to iNaturalist.
  • *** Note *** You can choose NOT to automatically synch (i.e. send the observations to iNaturalist immediately) which you might want to do in areas with poor cell service, or to minimize data usage over the cellular network. If you disable “automatic upload”, you will need to manually upload your observations.

Why don’t my observations appear in the project?

There can be several reasons why observations you have made don’t appear in the project. Projects have criteria for what observations are included. Typically a set of species, a date range, and a place. Often the project requires “Research Grade”, which means at least 2 identifiers agree on the species. You can find the project criteria on the project page in iNaturalist.

If you think your observation meets the project criteria, most likely the recorded accuracy of the observation is the reason it is excluded from the project. Projects only include observations where the ENTIRE accuracy circle is within the boundaries of the project place(s). If you are using an iNaturalist smart phone app, waiting a few seconds for the GPS to settle can help.

Questions?

Contact: dupagemonarchs@gmail.com