Larry Chen Curator

Joined: Dec 14, 2015 Last Active: Oct 6, 2024 iNaturalist Canada

First and foremost a bird lister but now increasingly moving into plants, insects, herps, and fish, especially while in North America where I don't bird as much (though I do try my best to notice non-birds while traveling internationally for birding!). Especially keen on smaller, less charismatic species that can be relatively overlooked, such as various plant galls and parasites, non-Ode/Lep insects, non-game freshwater fishes, lesser-known and unobtrusive native plants, and of course, uncommon non-native+ruderal plants (this last one has unfortunately led to much loss of respect for me by both my peers and myself). Avid swamp slogger, road median explorer, and documenter of insects on building walls. I also love exploring familiar (and unfamiliar!) landscapes at night, though I usually only do this outside the US, where doing so feels less hills-have-eyes-y.

My enthusiasm is not, unfortunately, matched by as much proficiency, skill, or expertise as I'd like (I only started getting into non-birding naturalisting in earnest the summer of 2020), so please do not hesitate to correct any mistakes I make in my IDs--they are more often than not informed by a combination of AI and haphazard research, not any real scientific background in botany, entomology, herpetology, etc (I have none, and I am not a biologist in any capacity).

Photos are 99% going to be from my iPhone, so please excuse potato quality; only exceptions are, for the most part, old photos of birds from ML that I upload from time to time, usually while bored in class. I usually go naturalisting with @harrier. Since iNaturalist does not have a share function, we photograph many of the same individual organisms, though often with a few different angles/additional details thrown in.

Feel free to tag me on anything, and reach out for whatever, whenever! Always happy to chat with or meet up with other naturalists :)

eBird: https://ebird.org/profile/NjQyMzU0/world

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