Observation fields make your observation more information rich and easier to search. You can usually add observation fields to other people's observations, too, which makes observation fields useful for research projects. For example, in the project Sphingids at Flowers ( https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/sphingids-at-flowers ) many of the observations use the field "Nectar plant" to record what plant the moth was feeding from.
Anyone can make new observation fields, which are then available to everyone. This is useful if you need something specific, but it also results in redundancy, as many people have made similar fields. I try to use the same field for the same thing for all of my observations that need it, so that when I use that field to search, I get all of my observations that fit.
For example, iNaturalist currently (7/2024) displays 561 pages of ...更多 ↓
Observation fields make your observation more information rich and easier to search. You can usually add observation fields to other people's observations, too, which makes observation fields useful for research projects. For example, in the project Sphingids at Flowers ( https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/sphingids-at-flowers ) many of the observations use the field "Nectar plant" to record what plant the moth was feeding from.
Anyone can make new observation fields, which are then available to everyone. This is useful if you need something specific, but it also results in redundancy, as many people have made similar fields. I try to use the same field for the same thing for all of my observations that need it, so that when I use that field to search, I get all of my observations that fit.
For example, iNaturalist currently (7/2024) displays 561 pages of observation fields to choose from, each page with about 30 fields ( https://www.inaturalist.org/observation_fields ). A quick search for the topic of "nectar" brings up a list of 19 fields: https://www.inaturalist.org/observation_fields?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=nectar&commit=Search
If you click the name of one of these fields, you'll get a list of all of the observations and projects that use it.
Some of my favorite observation fields:
Nectar / Pollen delivering plant: A one-size-fits-all field for a pollinator visiting a flower. It's a good fit for butterflies that only feed on nectar, and I like it better than "nectar plant" for bees, since bees may be gathering pollen as well. This field uses taxon data, so it will give you dropdown name options once you've typed a few letters.
Associated observation: This is a text field where you can paste in the web address of another observation. I use this to link pollinator observations to an observation of the plant they were visiting. You can also use it to link observations of predators and prey, or observations resulting from several species in one photo.
Other Organism: This is a taxon field where you can identify another organism in your photos. I use this to record things like what type of tree the squirrel was sitting in when my photos aren't nice enough to bother with also making a tree observation.
Host Plant ID: Good for recording what your caterpillar was eating.
Some examples of my observations that use observation fields:
Dogbane leaf beetles: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/227773981
Orange Sulphur: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/228753262
Sunburst Lichen: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/128633597
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