Step 1: Open iNaturalist
Open iNaturalist and log in to your account. You'll see options along the top of your dashboard. Press 'Observations' or 'Your Observations' in the menu above.
Step 2: Observation Filters
One you have the 'Observations' screen open, click the grey "Filters" button in the top right of the screen. Then make sure you press the "Bird" button under Categories to limit your export to birds (Birda will only import bird data).
Now click 'Download' in the bottom right to export your data.
Step 3: Export Observations
Everything is already correctly selected in the 'Create a Query', 'Preview' and 'Choose columns' steps on the 'Export Observations' screen. Do not change any settings on this screen. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the 'Create Export' button.
Step 4: "Exporting"
You'll get an "Exporting" message. This may take some time for the file to be made on the iNaturalist Website.
Step 5: Download your iNaturalist file
Once exported, you'll get a green message to say that your export is complete. Press "Download" to save the file to your computer.
Step 6: Unzip the iNaturalist file
In your downloads folder find the downloaded file that will be named something like this 'Observations-123456.csv.zip' and unzip the file as follows:
Windows users:
Right click on the downloaded Zip file and select 'Extract All' and then 'Extract'.
This will create a folder similar to 'observations-123456' in your downloads folder that contains your file that will have a name similar to 'observations-123456.csv'.
DO NOT open or edit your observations.csv file as this will change date formats in the file and cause the import to fail.
You can now import the observations CSV file to Birda
Mac users:
Double-click on the zipped file to unzip any zipped file on your Mac.
Find the extracted file observations file that will have a name similar to 'observations-123456.csv'.
DO NOT open or edit your observations CSV file as this will change date formats in the file and cause the import to fail.
You can now import the observations CSV file to Birda
IMPORTANT!!! Do not open or edit your observations CSV file before importing it to Birda. Opening or editing your observatoins.csv file will change date formats in the file and cause the import to fail.
Step 7: Import to Birda
Now simply open this URL to get started with your import: https://app.birda.org/imports
We automatically deduplicate imports so you can import as many times as you want to. Read more here.