Join residents in 400+ cities across the world in an epic, global mission to record as much wildlife as possible between Friday 28 April – Monday 1 May. Over the four-day challenge, people across the UK – and the world – will be coming together to share observations of the nature all around us, using the free iNaturalist app.
This spring, everyone is invited to share their wildlife sightings from windows, gardens, local parks, city streets – wherever you are in the country, all data collected will contribute towards conservation and monitoring efforts both in your local area and on a national-scale.
Simply download the iNaturalist app, take a photo of the nature you find, upload and share. The app will help you identify what you’ve found, and a community of wildlife experts will work together to confirm the exact species if you’re not sure. You can also upload photos directly to the iNaturalistUK website.
It’s more important than ever that we know what wildlife is living in the UK and where it is located – and your photos can help these efforts.
Take part
- Simply download the free iNaturalist app and take photos (or record sounds!) of the trees, plants, insects, animals, birds, or fungi you spot from your windows, in your garden, at local parks and along city streets. No expert knowledge is needed. The app will help you to ID your findings, or you can share the photo with the global community for an answer. Any photos taken over 28 April – 1 May will count towards the challenge but you can start making observations anytime!
- Upload your photos directly to the iNaturalistUK website. To count in the City Nature Challenge 2023 tally photos must be added by Monday 8th May. You could also include images from security cameras of visiting wildlife.
- Explore free challenges and helpful resources on the Natural History Consortium website, including activity packs for teachers and homeschoolers, mini-missions to do on your own or with others, and top tips for exploring the outdoors.
- Not in a city? No problem! The challenge extends outside of city boundaries, so you can still take part in any towns, villages, or surrounding countryside. Even if you are outside a city boundary, your wildlife sightings will still count towards the UK total and help put nature on the map.
- Using data to save nature – Your uploaded wildlife photos and sounds will add to local and national species databases, which help us to understand where wildlife is located in the UK and how we can help it thrive. The data collected gets used by researchers, land managers, conservation groups and government regularly to inform decisions.
Over 20 urban areas are taking part in the UK. These can be found on the City Nature Challenge 2023 UK Leaderboard, where you will be able to see a live feed of wildlife being recorded across your region.
Find out more about the challenge and further information on taking part in the UK.
For more information on how to set up your iNaturalistUK account to ensure that your observations feed into the national databases take a look at our Q&A page. For existing users, if you haven’t already done so you will need to confirm your email address by 1 July 2023. (New users since mid December 2022 will have confirmed their email when creating their account.)
Find out more about iNaturalistUK, for which the NBN Trust is the UK lead.