inatpick

An R package for downloading photos and metadata from iNaturalist via its API. Supports filtering by taxon, place, user, and annotation.

Installation

# Install from GitHub
remotes::install_github("andresarb/inatpick")

Usage

library(inatpick)

# 0. Find taxon and place IDs by name
inat_search_taxon("Drosera", rank = "genus")
inat_search_place("United Kingdom")

# 1. Fetch observations
obs <- inat_fetch(
  taxon_id      = 51935,    # Drosera genus
  place_id      = 6857,     # United Kingdom
  user_login    = "andresrb",
  annotation    = c("green_leaves", "flowers"),
  quality_grade = "research",
  licensed      = TRUE
)

# 2. Download photos and metadata to the same folder
inat_download(obs, out_dir = "drosera_photos", size = "large")

# Download photos only, no metadata
inat_download(obs, out_dir = "drosera_photos", metadata = FALSE)

# 3. Export metadata separately if needed
inat_metadata(obs, path = file.path("drosera_photos", "metadata.csv"))

Functions

Function	Description
`inat_search_taxon()`	Search for a taxon by name and retrieve its ID
`inat_search_place()`	Search for a place by name and retrieve its ID
`inat_fetch()`	Fetch observations from the iNaturalist API
`inat_download()`	Download photos (and optionally metadata) to a local folder
`inat_metadata()`	Export observation metadata to CSV
`inat_annotations`	Table of all available annotation labels and IDs

Arguments

`inat_search_taxon()`

name — taxon name to search (common or scientific)
rank — filter by taxonomic rank e.g. "genus", "species", "family" (optional)
n — maximum number of results to return (default 10)

`inat_search_place()`

name — place name to search
n — maximum number of results to return (default 10)

`inat_fetch()`

taxon_id — iNaturalist taxon ID (required)
place_id — iNaturalist place ID (optional)
user_login — iNaturalist username (optional)
annotation — filter by one or more annotation labels e.g. "flowers", c("flowers", "green_leaves") (optional)
quality_grade — "research", "needs_id", or "any" (default)
year / month — filter by observation date (optional)
licensed — if TRUE, return only CC-licensed observations (optional)

`inat_download()`

out_dir — output folder for photos and metadata (required)
size — photo resolution: "square" (75px), "small" (240px), "medium" (500px), "large" (1024px, default), or "original" (full resolution). For research use "large" or "original"; for quick previews use "small" or "medium". Size is appended to the filename (e.g. obs123_456_large.jpg).
metadata — if TRUE (default), saves metadata.csv to out_dir automatically
overwrite — re-download existing files (default FALSE)

`inat_metadata()`

path — output CSV file path (required)
extra_cols — additional columns from the API response to include

Finding IDs

Use the search functions or find IDs directly in iNaturalist URLs:

Taxon ID: inaturalist.org/taxa/51935 → 51935
Place ID: inaturalist.org/places/6857 → 6857
Annotation labels: run inat_annotations in R to see all available options

Photo Licenses & Attribution

inatpick is MIT licensed. However, photos downloaded from iNaturalist retain their own licenses as set by individual observers (CC0, CC-BY, CC-BY-NC, etc.). Users are responsible for respecting these licenses when using downloaded images for research or publication. Use licensed = TRUE in inat_fetch() to restrict downloads to CC-licensed photos only.

See iNaturalist Terms of Service for more information.

License

About

This package was developed as a personal project to support biodiversity research using iNaturalist data. It is maintained on a best-effort basis.

For bug reports, feature requests, or general questions, please open an issue on GitHub.

Disclaimer: This package is provided as-is, without warranty of any kind. Users are responsible for complying with iNaturalist’s Terms of Service and respecting the licenses of downloaded photos.

AI Disclosure

This package was developed with the assistance of Claude (Anthropic). All code has been reviewed and tested by the author.