I'm a hobby naturalist.

I was very interested in birds and plants up until this point and I'm doing great with IDing plants, but my interested started shifting. I really love bees and in 2024 I aim to know them better. I also aim to watch more marine life.

Here are some of the resources I use to make my IDs:

Ｇｅｎｅｒａｌ:
✯The life and plants of the land of Israel/החי והצומח של ארץ ישראל
detailed book series for everything in the Israeli natural world, including plant communities

Ｐｌａｎｔｓ:
✯flora.org.il
I type in the search bar the best taxonomic order I can ID. The website gives me a gallery of all the plants in that taxonomic order. I look up what's, most visually fitting (sometimes I do a filter by colour, range etc. in the filter bar, but it sometimes drops some of the fitting results).
Then I compare them one by one, paying attention to leaf placement, hairiness, thorniness, number of flowers on the stem.
Further down the page it also indicates the habitat, which can sometimes help. The website provides you with ID marks too.

✯https://www.wildflowers.co.il/english/
For further details I also use this website.

Ａｒｔｈｒｏｐｏｄｓ:
A short PSA:
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*insects account for 2/3 of life on the earth
*They have a far greater biodiversity than all other terestrial groups (like birds, mammals and amphibians)
*They are more anciant than even terestrial plants, so they are much more foundational to the ecosystem

And yet there are so little entomologists compared to all other groups.

I highly encourage you to get to know insects more closely.
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𝕀𝕟 𝕘𝕖𝕟𝕖𝕣𝕒𝕝:
✯The life and plants of the land of Israel/החי והצומח של ארץ ישראל - It has an overview of the local insect families. Understanding the habits of insects can be very helpful for their identification.
✯https://israel-nature-site.com/?page_id=565
very helpful for flies & musquitoes, bugs, beetles and moths.
Less helpful with spiders (even though it does have a small section about them and it can give you a small headstart with knowing ehich family you are looking at), Hymenopters (wasps, bees and ants).

𝔹𝕦𝕥𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕗𝕝𝕚𝕖𝕤:
✯מדריך הפרפרים בישראל/ דובי בינמיני - a very thorough guide to the local butterflies

𝔹𝕖𝕖𝕤:
Don't expect to be able to identify bees to the species level and prepare to be comfortable with IDs on the genus level.
Even experts struggle to identify a bee from a photo alone, and they often need a microscope and a few hours/days to be able to pinpoint the species.

✯Bee ID Facebook group: דבורי הבר בישראל Wild Bees of Israel
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1738105253145168

✯Gideon Phisanty is a local expert on the Andrena genus, but he is also very knowledgeable in bees in general. He is also highly active on Inat. So if you love bees, you will surely come across him ;).