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Come join Houston Audubon, the Houston Parks Department, and the Student Conservation Association for the Birding and BioBlitz event on April 28 at White Oak Park. This event will be held in conjunction with the City Nature Challenge, a multi-city competition to find and document the most species of birds, plants, and any other wildlife. Last year Houston came in FIRST in Texas AND nationally for most species identified! So invite your family and friends to join and come on out to Birding and BioBlitz!

What is a BioBlitz?
A "BioBlitz" is a citizen science event to try and find and identify as many species as possible in a given area over a short period of time. This includes plants, animals, fungi, and any other organisms! This year, the City Nature Challenge BioBlitz is taking place from April 27 to April 30. BioBlitzes aren’t only fun for participants, but they provide useful information to land managers, scientists, and help highlight diversity in urban areas.

What is the City Nature Challenge?
The City Nature Challenge is on for the second year, boasting events across more than 75 cities on six continents. Last year, in the United States alone, over 126,000 observations were logged in 5 days by over 4,000 citizen scientists, representing more than 8,500 species. The City Nature Challenge is organized by Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and California Academy of Sciences. Our Texas effort is hosted by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

What is iNaturalist?
It is easy to join the Birding and BioBlitz event of the City Nature Challenge by quickly installing the iNaturalist app. The iNaturalist app allows you snap a picture of a plant or animal and upload it. The community will then help identify the species. Any observation in the greater metropolitan area of Houston and Galveston will count during the four day challenge. Make sure you join us at BioBlitz with your app already installed so you have more time to check out the wildlife!

How to Join In!
We need YOU! From April 27 to April 30, you can go anywhere within the Houston range (see map on the City Nature Challenge link) and make observations that will add to our tally! This year is a competition among 65 cities in 15 different countries around the world. Any and all observations count, but the most valuable observations are made on public property (parks, right-of-ways, preserves, etc.) and are of wild (non-cultivated/not captive) organisms. Other observations count, of course, but the wild organisms found on public property can influence management and policy. Wherever you are, observe some things on April 27 - 30! Observations have to be uploaded before May 4 to count as well. Find more information from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department web page about this year’s City Nature Challenge.