For the third year in a row, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County calls on all Angelenos to get outside, snap photos of local wildlife and share their observations from April 27-30.

A participant in a NHMLA nature walk at Augustus F. Hawkins Nature Park in South L.A. holds a discovery to submit via iNaturalist. (photo courtesy of Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County)

As community science initiatives continue to increase in popularity, this year the annual “City Nature Challenge” will expand to 70 cities around the world. The global event asks people of all ages and backgrounds to observe and submit pictures of wild plants, animals and fungi using the free app iNaturalist.

Identification of photographed species will be crowdsourced through the online community May 1-3 and results will be announced on May 4 at noon.

The challenge, inaugurated in 2016 by NHMLA and the California Academy of Sciences, began as a friendly competition between Los Angeles and San Francisco to see which city could gather more observations. It has grown to become the world’s biggest event in community science. For this year’s event, organizers estimate that 500,000 observations will be made by over 10,000 people in 70 participating cities including Minneapolis, Boston, London, Rome, Buenos Aires, Tokyo and Hong Kong.

The data collected gives scientists, educators, urban planners and policymakers insight into the biodiversity of urban locales throughout the world.

This year, NHMLA will be hosting events during the challenge for Angelenos to get involved by participating in “bioblitzes” in San Pedro parks or joining NHMLA staff at identification parties. A full list of events is at nhm.org/nature/visit/events.

NHMLA is located at 900 W. Exposition Blvd. For information, visit citynaturechallenge.com or  inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2018.