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Advanced search lets you find all taxons that meet one or more criteria. JavaScript must be enabled in order for advanced search to work.
Advanced search builds on the capabilities of the regular search bar at the top of most pages. To avoid confusion, the advanced search page is the only page that does not have the regular search bar at the top.
Advanced search terms can be any of these forms:
You can get to the advanced search page using any of these methods:
An advanced search term with this form finds taxons within the specified taxon. E.g. searching “within desert poppies (genus Eschscholzia)“ results in the following hierarchy:
When adding the term within the advanced search page, the “within” prefix can be omitted and will be inferred. However, the “within” prefix is required when typing the advanced search term in the regular search bar; otherwise the result will simply link to the taxon instead of starting an advanced search.
You can enter multiple terms with the form “within taxon“, and the results will include all taxons within any of the listed taxons.
An advanced search term with this form finds taxons within the specified trait. E.g. searching “with blue flowers” finds all flowers with blue as the primary petal color.
At this time, the only trait that can be searched for is petal color. The list of color names used by the guide can be found on the page for flowering plants (subphylum Angiospermae).
When adding the term within the advanced search page, the “with” prefix can be omitted and will be inferred. However, the “with” prefix is required when typing the advanced search term in the regular search bar; otherwise the result will link to a static page listing the taxons with that trait instead of starting an advanced search.
You can enter multiple terms with the form “with trait“, and the results will include all taxons with any of the listed traits.
An advanced search term with this form finds taxons that I have observed at the specified location. E.g. searching for “Edgewood” finds all taxons that I’ve observed at Edgewood Park & Natural Preserve.
Locations are usually park names, but can be other geographic locations for observations outside parks.
The “observed in” prefix is optional in either the advanced search field or the regular search bar. However, including the prefix (or at least “in”) helps to quickly narrow the results to just locations that match the input.
You can enter multiple terms with the form “observed in location“, and the results will include all taxons observed in any of of the listed locations.
An advanced search term with any of these forms finds taxons that I have observed in the specified date range. E.g. searching for “2023” finds all taxons that I observed in 2023.
Note that “since” and “until” are inclusive of the listed date, while “after” and “before” are exclusive.
While typing a date term, the guide autofills missing digits with reasonable values. E.g. searching for “in 23–5” searches for taxons “observed in 2023–05”. Be sure to type enough digits where necessary to distinguish a year from a month. This autofill assumes that every month ends on the 31st. This looks funny, but has no adverse effect on the search results.
The form “between mm-dd and mm-dd“ looks for observations made with the specified season without regard to year. The first date is the start date, and the second date is the end date. If the second date comes before the first date, then the search range is from the first date, through the new year, to the second date.
At this time there is no shorthand search for taxons observed within a specified month of any year. Instead use “between mm-01 and mm-31”.
The “observed” prefix is optional, but the specifier for “in/on/since/etc.” must either be typed or selected from the list of matching results.
You can enter multiple date terms, and the results will include all taxons observed in any of of the listed date ranges. E.g. using both “since” and “until” is useful for finding taxons not observed within a certain date range.
After you enter a search term (and select one of the results), the guide displays the search term and its results, but also opens another input field where you can enter another search term.
If you enter multiple search terms of the same type, a search is performed for the taxons that match any of the search terms (the first or the second or …).
If you enter multiple search terms of different types, a search is performed for the taxons that match all of the search terms (the first and the second and …).
E.g. for these search terms
the result is those taxons in the sunflower family with white petals that were observed at either Edgewood Park or Pulgas Ridge.
The guide automatically reorders your advanced search terms to put terms of the same type together and to put terms of different types in the prefered order. However, there is nothing wrong with entering terms in any order you like.
You can edit any existing advanced search term by clicking on it. The search term is replaced by an input field containing the text your originally entered. You can them modify or replace the text and select an alternative result. Alternatively, if you clear your input text, the result list changes to “clear this search term”. Select that result or press the ’Enter’ key to remove your search term.
Alternatively, if you press the ’Esc’ key while editing a search term, it reverts to its original value.
For each taxon listed in the advanced search results, the guide also lists how many times I’ve observed it in situations that match the search terms. (Technically, it is the number of matching trips during which I’ve observed the taxon.)
You can also get more details by clicking one of the options below:
After clicking to get more details on a subject, you can click a different option to see different details, or click the same option again to close it.
If you click “[trips]“, the guide shows the date and location for each observation I’ve made of the taxon. This option is probably a lot more useful for me than for you. E.g. have I seen it recently?
If you click “[by month]“, the guide shows the number of observations I’ve made in each month, regardless of year. This helps show the months when the taxon is most easily observed.
If you click “[by location]“, the guide shows the number of observations I’ve made in each location. This helps show the bay area regions where the taxon is most common.
Whenever you add or change an advanced search term, the guide creates a new page for the search. Thus, you can navigate through your searches via standard browser navigation forward and back.
You can also bookmark any advanced search page. The search terms are saved in the bookmark, and the search is re-performed when you visit the bookmark.