You have probably heard about how important pollinators are to our ecosystems. Thousands of plant species depend on them to move their pollen and reproduce. Pollinators are also not just bees. Birds, butterflies, moths, and even bats can be pollinators too. Despite their importance, the majority of the interactions between plant and pollinator species remain unknown. This project will document the "who visits who" of California plants and pollinators. To do this, all you have to do is take photos of pollinators while they are visiting flowers, allowing scientists to link that plant species to that pollinator species. This information will be invaluable to conservation efforts of California's unique flora and fauna. You can do this in urban and wild habitats, just specify if the plant you are looking at was planted intentionally ("ornamental") or not. Currently, iNaturalist only lets you identify one species per observation. For this project, you need to identify two (the plant, and the pollinator). Thus, you will have to submit each observation as two separate observations - one for the plant, and one for the pollinator - and link them using a unique keyword entered into . I recommend using your iNaturalist username followed by a number- for example "bugfinder1". You will be prompted to enter this observation link keyword when you submit observations to this project.
