Researcher and writer by training and experience, and life-long birder with low vision and plant-lover, I am today a senior citizen with a walker and camera to bring the birds and plants close for better observation. iNaturalist provides me the opportunity to contribute meaningfully with my photos to the human knowledge base, something that I value deeply.

For me, “getting it right” is very important. Most of my IDs for others are sparrows of North America (Canada, US, and Mexico), especially the house sparrow. But there are many different kinds of sparrows. Correctly IDing them depends on visible field marks such as stripes on the crown of the head, ear patch on the side of the head, wing bars, and markings on the underparts of birds.

Unfortunately, very many observations on iNaturalist are too small for these markings to be visible. Enlarging the photo only blurs the marks since they did not register on the original. All I can do with these observations is "mark as reviewed." To prevent this problem when photographing birds, it helps to zoom in as close and clear as possible.

For more about me, visit my nature blog Naturally Urban at https://naturallyurbanpicshobbycorner.wordpress.com/.