Citizen science

Public platforms and organised projects where volunteers record or classify wildlife, often with community or expert verification.

Occurrence records with photos or sounds, checklists with effort, and crowd-made classifications of images or audio, each with a verification status.

iNaturalist for observations with community identification, eBird for bird checklists, Observation.org for recording in Europe and beyond, Zooniverse for online classification projects. All tools →

Major platforms share research-quality records with GBIF as Darwin Core occurrences.

Uneven effort and verification. Volunteers record more near roads, towns and on weekends, and identification quality varies, so analyses need to account for effort and use verification status.

Design simple tasks and clear guidance; decide what you ask volunteers to record, and how you will thank them.

Use an established platform where possible, so records do not end up in a one-off app.

Rely on community or expert verification, and keep the verification status with every record.

Respect platform licences and observer rights; hide locations of sensitive species automatically.

Make sure project data reaches a long-term archive such as GBIF, not just the project website.