City Nature Challenge

Help the Seattle-Tacoma Metropolitan Area (including Everett, Seattle, Bellevue, Tacoma and any place within Snohomish, King and Pierce counties!) show the world how biodiverse our region is by making observations of local species during City Nature Challenge!

City Nature Challenge will take place in two parts

You can support this effort by being an observer, helping others identify their observations, or better yet – both!

We encourage everyone to find and document what lives in our own homes, out our windows, on our windowsills and in our backyards, if not in our broader neighborhoods and cities. This can be done by yourself or with your family. You can also participate “online only” by looking through and helping to identify other people’s observations!

Be an Observer

1. Download the free iNaturalist app to your Android or iPhone (lots of helpful how-to videos on the iNaturalist website)
   • Download the iNaturalist app from the Google Play store
   • Download the iNaturalist app from the App Store
   • Need help? Read our handout on how to make an iNaturalist account on your mobile device.
2. Join the 2026 City Nature Challenge: Seattle-Tacoma Metropolitan Area iNaturalist project
3. Take photos of wild plants, animals and fungi in the Seattle Metro Area
   • This can be inside your house, in your backyard, out your window or in your neighborhood. Please no photos of pets or cultivated plants, but see what “wild” species you can find nearby!
4. Upload your photos to iNaturalist – from your mobile device or via your computer

Help Identify Observations

1. Download the free iNaturalist app to your Android or iPhone
2. Join the 2026 City Nature Challenge: Seattle-Tacoma Metropolitan Area iNaturalist project
3. Identify observations to species level. Add identifications to observations from this year’s City Nature Challenge, especially those that still need to get down to species. If you’re new to identifying or want to learn some ways to speed up the process, watch this short video on How to use iNaturalists’s Identify Page.

Education Toolkit

Are you a teacher or an educator? Here’s a toolkit just for you!

Learn more

The City Nature Challenge offers supporting resources in Chinese, Russian, Somali, Spanish, and Vietnamese. This “How To Participate Handout” can be distributed digitally and or printed and displayed on signboards or at community events.

Additional Languages:

How to Participate Handout in Chinese
How to Participate Handout in Russian
How to Participate Handout in Somali
How to Participate Handout in Spanish
How to Participate Handout in Vietnamese

Orientation for Educators & Other Group Leaders

Curious about citizen science and ways to support your community? Then watch our informative virtual session to learn howyou can help observe and identify local ecology right in your area!

2025 Results (PDF)
2024 Results (PDF)
2023 Results (PDF)
2022 Results (PDF)
2021 Results (PDF)
2020 Results (PDF)
2019 Results (PDF)
2018 Results (PDF)

Your local planning team for the Seattle-Tacoma City Nature Challenge includes:

Woodland Park Zoo, Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, Northwest Trek Wildlife Park, Seattle Parks and Recreation, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Habitat at Home Program, Green Tukwila / City of Tukwila, The Nature Conservancy in Washington, Washington State Department of Agriculture Pest Program and a graduate student with the Advanced Inquiry Program of Miami University of Ohio/Woodland Park Zoo.