March 30, 2026
Thom Carroll/For PhillyVoice.com
A fox runs bweteen gravestones at Laurel Hill Cemetery in East Falls.
Wildlife in Philadelphia isn’t just in parks and wooded areas. It shows up in everyday places, moving through neighborhoods, popping up in green spaces and sometimes appearing where you least expect it.
That’s the idea behind the City Nature Challenge. The four-day event runs from April 24 through April 27 and encourages people to pay closer attention to what is around them and snap photos of anything they spot, from birds and bugs to plants and larger animals.
Those photos get uploaded to the iNaturalist app, where each one counts toward a global tally. Cities around the world take part, competing to log the most sightings, the most species and the most participants.
In the Philadelphia region, submissions are accepted from seven counties, including Philadelphia, Delaware, Montgomery and Bucks in Pennsylvania, as well as Camden, Gloucester and Burlington in New Jersey. Any photo that is geotagged in the area and uploaded during the event will count toward the local total.
The event is meant to be easy to join. You can go out looking for wildlife or just take a closer look at what you notice during a walk around your neighborhood.
Local organizers, including the Academy of Natural Sciences, are helping coordinate participation through a shared iNaturalist project.
For participants, it can be as simple as spotting something unexpected on a regular walk or realizing wildlife has been there all along.
Apri 24-27
Outdoors in the Philly region
This content was generated by PhillyVoice Media Events, not by the newsroom staff.
