Discover the wildlife around us!

After planting a variety of native wildflowers along the public sidewalk near my house, 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 in my small Minneapolis yard! With iNaturalist, I've recorded more than 275 species of bees, wasps, flies, spiders, beetles, moths, butterflies and dragonflies, some quite rare, two for the first time in Minnesota. In a similar yard in St. Paul, an observer has identified over 440 species.

Spread the word! Learn about nature! iNaturalist encourages anyone, age 13 and up, to take photos of the amazing critters 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.