City Nature Challenge

“Welcome to the Philadelphia City Nature Challenge! Between April 28 and May 1, 2023, Philadelphia and its adjacent counties will be competing against other cities in the world to see who can find the most species in their regions. If you are interested in contributing and helping Philly win, download the iNaturalist app (or visit the website) and start documenting the wildlife in your area. You can also visit our project page to see the latest observations as they come in.

A lot of people think cities are mostly devoid of wildlife; there are the pigeons hanging out on buildings, the sparrows in city parks and the rats running around our alleyways, but that’s about it. This could not be farther from the truth. The City of Philadelphia alone has recorded more than 325 species of birds. Numerous butterflies including monarchs live and breed in the city. There are snakes, frogs, dragonflies, foxes, bats, and much more to experience in our area. The City Nature Challenge gives us a way to explore and document the biodiversity in the cities and suburbs we call home. This, in turn, is useful for science and conservation.

For information on the City Nature Challenge, tips on participating and to see the other cities competing in 2023 check out the City Nature Challenge page.”

More About the City Nature Challenge

Starting in 2016 as a competition between Los Angeles and San Francisco, the City Nature Challenge (CNC) has grown into an international event, motivating people around the world to find and document wildlife in their own cities. Run by the Community Science teams at the California Academy of Sciences and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHM), the CNC is an annual four-day global bioblitz at the end of April, where cities are in a collaboration-meets-friendly-competition to see what can be accomplished when we all work toward a common goal.