A better nature observation starts before upload

A photograph is only one part of the record

A nature photo can be a memory and still be a weak observation. iNaturalist calls an observation verifiable when it has an accurate date, accurate geographic coordinates, a photo or sound, and a wild or naturalized subject. GBIF's checklist asks for the five Ws: what happened, who acted, when and where it happened, and why.

That sounds formal, but the field habit is simple. Pick one wild subject, keep the phone's date and location accurate, and write one line about the habitat before you move on.

Five notes worth making on the trail

• Take one clear photo of the subject and, when it helps, a second frame that shows its habitat. Add a sound only if it is your own recording.
• Keep the actual date and add the time if you know it. Do not reconstruct a date from memory.
• Let the phone record coordinates, then check that the point matches the trail or place. Do not report more precision than you observed.
• Choose the narrowest identification the evidence supports. 'Unknown plant' is better than a confident species guess with no evidence.
• Count individuals only when you can count them honestly. If you cannot, leave the count out and say so.

Let the review stay visible

On iNaturalist, a verifiable record normally starts as Needs ID. It can reach Research Grade when the community agrees on an identification and the other quality conditions still hold. Under the usual rule, more than two thirds of identifiers must agree at species level. Treat that as a record of community review, not a substitute for checking the evidence.

Do not use generative or image-editing tools to add, remove, or replace an organism in your evidence. iNaturalist says that kind of alteration can make an observation Casual. It treats denoising, focus stacking, and small fixes such as sensor-dust removal differently. Keep the original file and describe any meaningful edit.

Protect the location and check the license

Some records should not show an exact location. iNaturalist lets observers mark an observation obscured or private, and it can apply taxon geoprivacy when public coordinates could increase pressure on a sensitive species. The service warns that a photo, note, or nearby open observation can still reveal an obscured place. Avoid pairing a sensitive record with identifying landmarks or a nearby open observation at the same time.

You still own your photo, but a link is not a reuse license. iNaturalist says observation data, images, and sounds carry separate licenses. Its default for posted content is CC BY-NC, but users can change it or mark content all rights reserved. For Garbamons, link to the original observation and inspect the item license before copying media.

Turn one sighting into a careful loop

Use Garbamons to save the place, write the date and conditions, and link to the original observation. On a later visit, repeat the same small routine. GBIF's guidance covers both occurrence and sampling-event datasets and stresses accuracy, completeness, and fitness for use.

For a Garbamons note, say exactly what happened: one observation, where and when, how confident you are, and where the source record lives. That is enough for a useful field habit. Do not turn one sighting into a population claim.

Sources

• iNaturalist Data Quality Assessment

  Current definitions for verifiable observations, Needs ID, and Research Grade. (LINK_ONLY)

• iNaturalist geoprivacy guidance

  Platform guidance on obscured and private locations and sensitive taxa. (LINK_ONLY)

• iNaturalist licensing guidance

  Ownership, per-item licenses, and default CC BY-NC terms. (LINK_ONLY)

• GBIF data quality checklist

  Five Ws and completeness checks for occurrence and sampling-event data. (LINK_ONLY)

• GBIF biodiversity data quality course

  Accuracy, precision, uncertainty, and fitness-for-use guidance. (LINK_ONLY)