April 24, 2026
MEDIA CONTACT:
Stryker Weiner & Yokota Public Relations, Inc.
Kryslyn Hashimoto
Bishop Museum Encourages Oʻahu Residents to
Take Part in the 2026 City Nature Challenge
17-day event supports global community science effort to document the Earth’s biodiversity.
Honolulu, Hawaiʻi — Bishop Museum, the State of Hawai‘i Museum of Natural and Cultural History, is encouraging Oʻahu residents to take part in the 2026 City Nature Challenge, a global community science effort to document the Earth’s biodiversity. The 17-day event starts on Friday, April 24, 2026, and runs through Monday, May 10, 2026.
The City Nature Challenge is a worldwide “BioBlitz”-style event that calls on current and aspiring citizen scientists, nature and science enthusiasts, and people of all ages to observe and submit pictures of wild plants, animals, and fungi to the free app, iNaturalist.
Image: Photo submitted by Chandra Earl.
“Nature is everywhere and especially in Hawaiʻi, we’re very fortunate that it’s all around us,” said Gina Errico, Bishop Museum science curriculum & engagement coordinator, and co-coordinator of the 2026 City Nature Challenge on Oʻahu. “Unfortunately, scientists can’t be everywhere at once, so community observations such as those from the City Nature Challenge can document incredible finds that may otherwise be missed.”
During the 2025 City Nature Challenge, there were 150 observations of rare and endangered species on Oʻahu, an influx of information that provides scientists, educators, urban planners, and policymakers insight into the biodiversity of urban locales (in total, more than 3,000 observations of more than 900 species were made). This year, the island of Oʻahu is once again a participating region in the Challenge and will be competing against more than 600 cities worldwide to document as many species as can be found in the wild.
Calder Atta, Bishop Museum Ichthyology collections manager is a Museum co-coordinator of the Oʻahu event with Errico. Although their focus is on their home island, he, Errico, and the Museum encourage all Hawaiʻi residents to become citizen scientists and use tools like iNaturalist to document the Hawaiian Islands’ fragile and previous biodiversity.
“Biodiversity is critically important to all of us, especially in Hawaiʻi where we have unique and interconnected ecosystems,” said Atta. “Biodiversity is nature’s ‘insurance policy’ — the more variety of plants, animals, and other living things in our ʻāina, the better chance we have of coping with changes in the environment, like climate change. Each species plays a unique role, and losing one can upset the entire balance.”
“And so it’s important for us to know what we have, how they’re doing, and what we’ve lost,” added Errico. “This is where citizen scientists and the community coming together to document our shared biodiversity can play a huge role in protecting it.”
The City Nature Challenge involves two parts:
- April 24-27: An Observation Period, where participants take pictures of wild plants and animals, and upload them to the iNaturalist community science platform.
- April 28 – May 10: An Identification Period, where participants log on to iNaturalist and help identify the uploaded pictures posted during the Observation Period.
Live results of Oʻahu finds can be viewed on the Oʻahu iNaturalist project page:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2026-o-ahu
“The City Nature Challenge is an opportunity to capture an annual ʻsnapshot’ of biodiversity in and around cities, which are rapidly changing, like how we’re seeing on Oʻahu,” said Atta. “As a museum and as scientists that study the natural world, it’s important that we include the community in what we do. Through this event we hope to promote citizen science and grow our iNaturalist ʻohana, to collectively and collaboratively study, preserve, and protect the biodiversity of all our islands.”
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About Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, the State of Hawai‘i Museum of Natural and Cultural History:
Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum’s mission is to inspire our community and visitors through the exploration, celebration, and perpetuation of the extraordinary history, culture, and environment of Hawaiʻi and the Pacific. The Museum was founded in 1889 by Charles Reed Bishop in memory of his wife Bernice Pauahi Bishop, a royal descendant of King Kamehameha I. Today, the Museum thrives as an educational center for the community and is widely regarded as the world’s premier institution for Hawaiian and Pacific content.
Bishop Museum’s vast collections of more than 25 million objects and specimens represent nine disciplines and include more than 22 million biological specimens, over 2 million cultural objects, 115,000 historical publications, and 1 million photographs, films, works of art, audio recordings, and manuscripts. These collections tell the stories of the cultures and biodiversity of Hawaiʻi and the Pacific as well as the proud legacy of scholarly research spanning 130 years.
Bishop Museum proudly serves more than 200,000 visitors each year, including 20,000 children on school visits. Guests are encouraged to pre-plan their trip to #HawaiisMuseum with its free digital guide, available through Bloomberg Connects.
To learn more about the Museum’s research, collections, exhibits, and programs, visit BishopMuseum.org, follow @BishopMuseum on Facebook and Instagram, visit Bishop Museum’s YouTube channel, or call (808) 847-3511. Bishop Museum is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Bishop Museum is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer, and welcomes applicants from the military, veterans, and those with disabilities. Learn about careers at Bishop Museum at BishopMuseum.org/Careers and on its LinkedIn page.
Bishop Museum Press is Hawai‘i’s oldest book publisher and one of the first scholarly publishers in the Western Hemisphere, and has published over 1,200 titles and distributed over 1 million books in 72 countries worldwide. Bishop Museum hosts a restaurant and gift shop on campus, Tūtū’s Place by Highway Inn and Shop Pacifica by Nā Mea Hawai‘i.
Past news releases can be viewed and downloaded at BishopMuseum.org/NewsRoom.