Portland tucks a surprising amount of wild country inside the city, from Forest Park, one of the largest urban forests in the country, to the wetlands where the Willamette meets the Columbia. Great blue herons (the official city bird) stand in every backwater, bald eagles and ospreys fish the rivers, and beavers work the smaller creeks. Vaux’s swifts put on the city’s best show each September, funneling by the thousands into the Chapman School chimney at dusk.
Everything below is pulled live from recent research-grade observations near Portland. Browse by group, explore the map, and identify what you find with Huck.
94,458
recent observations
30
species listed
13
birds
10
plants
3
insects & arthropods
Naturalists have logged 94,458 research-grade observations across the 30 most-recorded species near Portland. The most frequently seen is the Mallard, with 6,370 recorded sightings.
Birds account for the largest share of what gets recorded there (13 of the species listed here), followed by plants (10).