Tompkins Pollinator Pathway iNaturalist Project

What is iNaturalist? 

–From iNaturalist.com “iNaturalist is an online social network of people sharing biodiversity information to help each other learn about nature. It’s also a crowdsourced species identification system and an organism occurrence recording tool. You can use it to record your own observations, get help with identifications, collaborate with others to collect this kind of information for a common purpose, or access the observational data collected by iNaturalist users.” It’s an easy-to-use app that anyone can utilize. iNaturalist can be used both online and on the phone app. Visit the iNaturalist website to learn more.

Tompkins Pollinator Pathway  

–uses iNaturalist to connect community members to each other and their environment by recording what native plants and pollinators are in their gardens. We are eager to know which pollinator friendly native plants are in your gardens and which pollinators are visiting them. Not only is iNaturalist useful in recording and sharing biological information, it also has tools to help with identification.

iNaturalist Quick User’s Guide 

For anyone that already has an iNaturalist account 

1. Open the iNaturalist App 
2. Select “Projects”  
   1. In the search bar type “Tompkins Pollinator Pathway” 
   2. Select the project name and then choose “Join” 
   3. You only need to do this step one time 
3. Select the “Observe” camera icon  
   1. Use “Camera” or “Photo Library” 
4. For help with identification select “What did you see?” 
5. Add appropriate Notes if you wish 
6. Select “Geoprivacy” and select “Obscured” 
7. Select “Projects” 
   1. Select “Tompkins Pollinator Pathway” 
   2. Then click “Details” to head back to your observation 
8. Select “SHARE” at the bottom to add your observation. 

Initial Setup 

For first time users, on a cellphone

1. Download the iNaturalist App from your phone’s App Store  
2. Open the app and select the icon to “Sign Up” 
3. Create an account by following the prompts on your phone screen 
4. Select “Projects”  
   1. In the search bar type “Tompkins Pollinator Pathway” 
   2. Select the project name and then choose “Join” 
   3. You only need to do this step one time 
5. Now you can start creating observations! Select the “Observe” camera icon at the bottom of the page. You can either take a photo with your camera within the app: “Camera”; or you can  choose a photo that is already in your phone: “Photo Library”
6. After you either take or select a photo you can: 
   1. Select “What did you see?” to view suggestions of what the plant, insect, etc. is based on the image and location. You can select the suggestion, or go back to the previous screen by clicking “<Details” in the upper left-hand corner. 
   2. You can add notes about the image. Ex: I believe this is a carpenter bee; or this flower bloomed 3 days ago 
   3. You can edit the date, time, location, and other information by clicking on the appropriate box. *Note: even though the location is listed on your screen, it is only visible to you if you if you choose the “obscured” privacy setting in the next step. 
   4. You can change the privacy setting of the coordinates associated with your observation by clicking the “Geoprivacy” section. We suggest using “Obscured,” see descriptions and image below for more information.
      1. –Open: Lat/Long coordinates of where the photo was taken are displayedon the observation and available to other users in iNaturalist
      2. –Obscured (suggested): does not show exact coordinates, displays a randomly generated location marker in a general location nearby.
      3. –Private: No geographic information is shared publicly. Lat/Long and Locality Notes are completely hidden from the public. This is great for privacy but does make the observation not valuable to the project.
7. Finally, add the observation to the Pollinator Pathway Project. If you do not complete this last step, your observation will not be seen or part of the project! 
   1. Select “Projects” at the bottom of the observation
   2. Select Tompkins Pollinator Pathway
   3. Navigate back to the observation page by clicking “<Details”
8. Save your observation by clicking the big green “Share” button at the bottom. 

See images below to illustrate the steps above.

Adding an observation with your phone

More information on Privacy Settings