How To Know What A Bug, Snake, Or Plant Really Is- Utica, Rome, Syracuse

Have you found a mushroom, flower, snake, or bug in your yard and you're not sure what it is? There is an app for that here in Utica, Rome, Syracuse, and the rest of Central New York.

Introducing Seek

Take your nature knowledge up a notch with the Seek app. So how does it work? Literally, it works using your phone's camera:

Use the power of image recognition technology to identify the plants and animals all around you. Earn badges for seeing different types of birds, amphibians, plants, and fungi and participate in monthly observation challenges."

How Does It Know What The Object Is?

The app draws from millions of wildlife observations on iNaturalist. Seek will show you lists of commonly recorded insects, birds, plants, amphibians, and more in your area.

What's The Catch?

Honestly, not much of a catch. Seek has no registration involved, and no user data is collected.

Seek will ask permission to turn on location services, but your location is obscured to respect your privacy while still allowing species suggestions from your general area. Your precise location is never stored in the app or sent to iNaturalist."

How cool is this?

Super Helpful

Next time you find a weird looking spider, or snake, hanging out in your backyard.....don't turn to Dr. Google. Turn to your phone, and learn if the object is poisonous, or just annoying.