Discover the wildlife around us!

After planting a variety of native wildflowers along the public sidewalk near my Minneapolis home, I observed the colorful pollinator insects they attracted. To learn more, I took photos and uploaded them to iNaturalist where artificial intelligence and human experts assisted with identification.

What a diversity of tiny wildlife! I've recorded more than 300 species of bees, wasps, flies, spiders, beetles, moths, butterflies and dragonflies, some quite rare, and two for the first time in Minnesota.

Spread the word! Learn about nature! iNaturalist encourages anyone, age 13 and up, to take photos of the amazing life around us, upload their observations, and contribute to citizen science.

What is iNaturalist?

iNaturalist provides a place to record and organize nature findings, meet other nature enthusiasts, and learn about the natural world. It encourages the participation of a wide variety of nature enthusiasts, including, but not exclusive to, gardeners, walkers, birders, beach combers, mushroom foragers, hunters, park rangers and ecologists. Through connecting these different perceptions and expertise of the natural world, iNaturalist hopes to create extensive community awareness of local biodiversity and promote further exploration of local environments.

Contribute to Science!

Every observation can contribute to biodiversity science, from the rarest butterfly to the most common sidewalk ant. iNaturalist will share findings with scientific data repositories like the Global Biodiversity Information Facility to help scientists find and use this data.