City Nature Challenge Louisville Metro

05/14/2026

Observing and uploading photos to iNaturalist is not enough. We need people to identify the species to as high a resolution as possible. If the organism is identified to species by enough identifiers, then it attains RESEARCH GRADE. Those observations are the ones scientists start to look at for the research studies. So it isn't just about you getting an ID, but about your observation's usefulness to science that distinguishes iNaturalist from other ID apps.

I CAN'T THANK ALL THE IDENTIFIERS FROM LOUISVILLE AND AROUND THE WORLD ENOUGH FOR THEIR WILLINGESS TO VOLUNTEER TO ID SO MANY PHOTO OBSERVATIONS TO THE BEST TAXONOMIC LEVEL POSSIBLE.

HERE ARE THE TOP 10 FOR OUR LOUISVILLE METRO CNC PROJECT.

#1 was Margaret Carreiro who identified 758 observations, followed by Captain Bill and Ruth Meers, all of whose eyes must have gotten plenty blurry looking at so many photos! Thank you!

Go here to see the whole list and rankings:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2026-louisville-metro?tab=identifiers

05/14/2026

138 people uploaded their photos to iNat during the 4-day CNC Bioblitz. Here are the Top 10 Observers for this years CNC 2026. Thank you all for going out to so many locations and uploading your photos!

Michael Oakley is once again our Number 1 Observer (421 photo uploads) with 236 species to his credit! Congratulations, Michael!

Go here to see the entire list: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2026-louisville-metro?tab=observers

05/14/2026

Keep the Energy Going: International Day for Biodiversity
The City Nature Challenge may be over, but the season of observation is just getting started! May 22 is the International Day for Biodiversity (IDB): a United Nations observance that celebrates the variety of life on Earth and raises awareness about the importance of protecting it. The IDB is tied to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, which sets global targets for protecting ecosystems, reducing species loss, and ensuring the benefits of biodiversity are shared equitably. When we document species on iNaturalist, we're contributing real data that can help countries and communities make progress toward those goals.
This year's IDB theme is "Acting Locally for Global Impact," and sharing your observations of species on iNaturalist does exactly that. Every photo of a plant, insect, bird, or fungus becomes part of a worldwide dataset that scientists and decision-makers use to protect species and places.
The iNaturalist IDB project runs May 15–31, so you can start making observations for it this Friday. And as a complement to the CNC, you can contribute from anywhere — not just in and around where you live.
🌿 Join the project here: iNaturalist IDB 2026

Observe local species May 15–31 for International Day for Biological Diversity! Join this project so your observations count. Together, we create a global snapshot of life on Earth. The theme of IDB 2026 is "Acting locally for global impact." This project is our iNaturalist contribution ...

05/14/2026

CNC 2026 Results: Thank You for Bringing the World Together for Biodiversity!

The results are in, and what a year it was! The 2026 City Nature Challenge results were officially announced today, and we are so grateful to every single person who stepped outside, looked a little closer at the world around them, and added their observations (and identifications!) to the global record of life on Earth.

The results are in, and what a year it was! The 2026 City Nature Challenge results were officially announced today, and we are so grateful to every single person who stepped outside, looked a little closer at the world around them, and added their observations (and identifications!) to the global re...

05/14/2026

The iNaturalist City Nature Challenge for 2026 is now over. How did Louisville Metro do?

ARACHNIDS
25 species of spiders and their relatives comprised 3% of our species this year in Louisville Metro.

Here are the Top Ten Most observed arachnid species in Jefferson County over the 4 days of the CNC Bioblitz. My personal favorite is number 3, the Bold Jumping Spider. They are in my house, too, but I didn't see one from April 24 to 27.
The most observed arachnid species in the 754 cities that participated in the CNC was the European Nursery Web Spider.

To see all 35 species we found, visit here:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?project_id=265135&taxon_id=47119&verifiable=any&view=species

05/14/2026

The iNaturalist City Nature Challenge for 2026 is now over. How did Louisville Metro do?

MAMMALS
Over the 4 days of the CNC bioblitz, we documented 10 mammal species in Jefferson County in 2026. They comprised 1.2% of all our observations. And here they are!

TOP 10 Mammals
The fact that squirrels were the most observed mammal here in Louisville sure wouldn't have been a surprise to most of us! LOL! It was also the most observed mammalian species across all the 754 cities that participated in the CNC, too.

I am grateful to the photographers who documented some of the more uncommon mammalian denizens in our city There are otters here, but I guess they were being shy. No one observed any possums. Skunks are missing, too. But I guess most folks were not about to go looking for them! LOL

05/14/2026

The iNaturalist City Nature Challenge for 2026 is now over. How did Louisville Metro do?

BIRDS
10% of all the species we found were birds and we documented 86 of them!

WHICH WERE THE TOP 10 SPECIES?
Most are our common backyard birds, but a few were migratory either passing through (Rose-breasted Grosbeaks) or nesting here in our marshes for the summer (Red-wing Blackbird). Mallard ducks, which were our number 5 most observed bird here, was the number one most observed ANIMAL worldwide across 754 cities.
(The most observed animal in Louisville was the Fowler Toad)

To see all the bird species observed in the 4 days of the challenge bioblitz, visit this webpage: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?project_id=265135&taxon_id=3&verifiable=any&view=species

05/14/2026

The iNaturalist City Nature Challenge for 2026 is now over. How did Louisville Metro do?

INSECTS
Insects comprised 16% of all our observations in 2026 compared to 11.6% in 2025. In just 4 days, we found 136 insect species in 2026 compared to only 95 last year. Either we are getting more observant or it may have been because our spring was two weeks advanced in terms of temperature compared to last year, so more insects had emerged by the end of April.

Here are the Top 10 Insects that we found here in Jefferson County.
Look at that colorful diversity! The most observed insect worldwide across the 754 cities that participated was the Western Honey Bee.

Go here to see the rest of them. They are fascinating!
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?project_id=265135&taxon_id=47158&verifiable=any&view=species

05/14/2026

The iNaturalist City Nature Challenge for 2026 is now over. How did Louisville Metro do?

PLANTS
93 of us uploaded 2113 photos of plants. Our identifiers determined they consisted of 520 species! It is clear that many of us took to our woodlands to document plants since Jack-in-the-Pulpit is the one that caught our eye the most. Globally, the Dandelion was the most observed plant species.

Here are the Top 10 Plants we documented in Jefferson County. Only one was a non-native, Multiflora Rose.

To see all the plant species we found in order of abundance, visit:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?project_id=265135&taxon_id=47126&verifiable=any&view=species

05/14/2026

Hello, Louisville iNaturalist observers and the biodiversity curious! The 2026 City Nature Challenge is over until next year when it will occur April 30 to May 3. So, you can add it to your Derby Weekend events now.

HOW MANY SPECIES DID WE DOCUMENT IN JEFFERSON COUNTY ?
In 4 days, 138 observers uploaded photos of nearly 3000 individual plantS, animalS and fungi ! Thanks to our 295 identifiers for helping get 866 of those to species and 66% of those observations to RESEARCH GRADE, which allows other scientists a starting place for their using the data for their biodiversity research. This represents an incredible effort as globally, the average research grade achieved across the 754 cities that participated was 40%.

What were the top 3 species groups?
66% of the species we observed were plants.
16% were insects
10% were birds.