SWT Sarah Davison
Staffordshire City Nature Challenge
Lace up your boots, grab your phone, it's time for City Nature Challenge 2026
Join us for the world's largest bioblitz!
From 24 - 27 April 2026 any sighting you make of wildlife in the FREE iNaturalist app will help create vital ecological records that inform conservation in Staffordshire and around the world.
What are you waiting for? Download the app and get snapping!
What exactly is City Nature Challenge?
City Nature Challenge is an annual competition between locations all over the world to see how many wild species their citizens can spot over the space of four days.
As well as an activity that gets us out seeing the wonderful wildlife in our towns, cities, and countryside it also provides organisations like Staffordshire Wildlife Trust vital information that can help protect wildlife across the county. Species observations generated during the City Nature Challenge will help us map changes in the distribution and population of our wildlife.
Our involvement is organised thanks to our colleagues at Staffordshire Ecological Records (SER).
Model: David Morrison. Description: London peregrine expert watching peregrine falcons (Falco peregrinus) on the houses of parliament, central london, summer. Author: Bertie Gregory - Bertie Gregory/2020VISION
Two woman surveying nature by Matthew Roberts
Survey 2 - Kevin Caster
SWT Sarah Davison
How Can I take part?
There are three ways to take part:
1. Help us record as much wildlife as possible during the first part of the challenge from 24 - 27 April 2026. You can use the free iNaturalist app, or you can upload photos of sightings to the iNaturalist website. www.inaturalist.org
Records of wildlife spotted in Staffordshire during the challenge and recorded in iNaturalist count towards our total and move us up the live global leader board.
The best part is, you don't need to be an expert. Simply take a photo of a wild plant or animal, and iNaturalist will help you to identify it!
2. Help us identify wildlife people have recorded during the second part of the challenge from 28 April - 10 May. Once all the sightings are submitted, experts can help identify sightings to be made into records. If you're a confident nature enthusiast, you can help participants ID what they have seen. Even narrowing down a sighting to several possible options is a big help and cuts down the work for specialists.
As records are uploaded they will appear on our iNaturalist project page.
3. Host a bioblitz! If you lead walks, scout groups, or other outdoor activities, why not plan a session during the competition? If you are interested in organising your own City Nature Challenge event, please let us know as we would love to hear about it and help spread the word. Contact us at info@staffs-wildlife.org.uk.
How to use the iNaturalist App
iNaturalist provide information on their website here.
More help and Identification Guides
Simple how to make a record on iNaturalist App Guide
Step-by-step iNaturalist Guide
Woodland Trust nature detectives
Insect Identification Guide
The Great Mini Beast Hunt
When are the results announced?
Global results will be announced on 13 May.
The records are collated in the iNaturalist Recording System and the leader board is updated in real time!
Areas have previously been ranked according to:
• Number of Observations
• Number of Species
• Number of Observers
The City Nature Challenge is organised globally by: California Academy of Sciences and the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum.
If you have any questions about the Staffordshire Nature Challenge, please drop an email to the team:
info@staffs-ecology.org.uk
We'll be sending out some updates and reminders on the City Nature Challenge nearer to the time. If you would like to receive these updates follow us on Facebook and Bluesky.
