San Diego has the richest wildlife of any city in the country by most counts, sitting where desert, coastal sage, and the Pacific all meet. California sea lions and harbor seals haul out at La Jolla, brown pelicans glide the cliffs, and the lagoons up the coast fill with egrets, terns, and wintering shorebirds. Inland, the chaparral canyons hold California gnatcatchers, western fence lizards, and coyotes. Gray whales pass offshore on their migration each winter.
Everything below is pulled live from recent research-grade observations near San Diego. Browse by group, explore the map, and identify what you find with Huck.
263,074
recent observations
30
species listed
17
birds
8
plants
1
reptiles & amphibians
Naturalists have logged 263,074 research-grade observations across the 30 most-recorded species near San Diego. The most frequently seen is the Western Fence Lizard, with 20,593 recorded sightings.
Birds account for the largest share of what gets recorded there (17 of the species listed here), followed by plants (8).