10 iNaturalist search terms and tricks

I've tried to collate all the search terms and tricks here, please add or correct any omissions or errors. Can anyone recommend a way to create a collaborative list of search terms and tricks? Perhaps a google spreadsheet?

Searching comments:

To search comments for a term: https://www.inaturalist.org/comments?q=XYZ (note: this will also find words or phrases that contain XYZ as a string so it will find ‘boXY Zebra’)

To search comments for a phrase: https://www.inaturalist.org/comments?q=XYZ%20ABC

Note: ID comments and descriptions are not currently searchable under the https://www.inaturalist.org/comments page, however they will appear in the comment list if a obs has at least one comment.

Searching for Identifications:

http://inaturalist.org/identifications/?user_id=1234&taxon_id=1234 to find IDs by a user (higher taxon will include all lower)

to see all maverick obs: https://www.inaturalist.org/identifications?user_id=XYZ&current=false

to find obs of a taxon where it isn’t the current ID: https://www.inaturalist.org/identifications?taxon_id=119245&current=false

URLS manipulation (some of these have their own toggles in the filters):

Only with photos: &photos=true

To find a term in a description or tag: &q=XYZ

To find a phrase in a description or tag: &q=XYZ%20ABC

To see only your obs append this: &user_id=vynbos

To see only unknowns append: &iconic_taxa=unknown

Limit to a taxon: &taxon_id=12345 (note this will also show all obs below that taxon)

To limit to a taxon and nothing below it: &taxon_id=12345&lrank=XYZ (replace XYZ with the taxon’s rank i.e: ‘family’)

For multiple taxa separate with comma: &taxon_id=12345,67890

To remove a taxon: &without_taxon_id=12345

Male : &term_id=9&term_value_id=11

Female : &term_id=9&term_value_id=10

Setting date range filters in URL = http://www.inaturalist.org/observations?d1=2014-05-15&d2=2014-05-25&per_page=200

Also, https://www.inaturalist.org/identifications?user_id=XYZ&current=false doesn't just show mavericks. It shows any differing IDs, even if they are not in disagreement (e.g, I enter an ID of "Birds", someone else IDs to Species...my coarse ID is listed here). Furthermore, it lists observations where I was the maverick, even if I have since withdrawn my dissenting ID (because current=false).

I've found this works better for finding a user's maverick IDs: https://www.inaturalist.org/identifications?user_id=star3&category=maverick&current=true (substitute your user ID)

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/export
https://www.inaturalist.org/comments
k you can, but maybe though some combination of filters it is possible to further restrict the list to things you have not photographed
by default, the list uses your Research Grade, for example Southern Cloudywing comes back on my list. I have observed it, but a person vote against it, so it is stuck at NeedsID and genus : https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/14347167

Another method is to create a life list for that given area (e.g. https://www.inaturalist.org/lists/835799-Ontario-List). Use the options "Reload from observations" and "Re-apply list rules" under "Tools" to make sure it's up to date (lists are kind of broken). You now have a list with your photos, which can be filtered taxonomically, and will show pictures ordered taxonomically (although it won't match any particular convention for order, so for butterflies the order is Swallowtails, Skippers, Brush-foots, Lycaenids, Pierids).

To view observation fields with your Observado ID, you might want to bookmark a link like this:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?field:Observado%20URL=https:%2F%2Fobservation.org%2Fwaarneming%2Fview%2F119969639
and then edit that number at the very end of the URL to your Observado ID in question.

It's my understanding that a redesign of the observations search page is on the to-do list for the website developers, and I do hope they include observation fields/annotations in the filters. For now you can navigate to an observation to find the appropriate URL (e.g. see attached, where you would click "Observations with this field and value") to find the link above.

iNaturalist doesn't have any "standardized" observation fields for host species. "Host" is the most used one, though "Host plant" is also commonly used. Here are all the observation fields with "host" in the name. The only standardized observation fields (aka "Annotations") are Sex, Life Stage, and Flowering Phenology. Read more about annotations here.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?field:Host=56312

Publicado el septiembre 28, 2018 05:45 TARDE por ahospers