Nice Wildlife: Nature in the City

Article & photos by Clare Catchpole

It’s been a busy few weeks, and suddenly the evenings are lighter. This is one of the best times of year to explore Nice, before the heat sets in and the city fills up.

But we’re not the only ones who appreciate living here.

There’s a whole other population quietly getting on with things: from the stubborn dandelion pushing through a crack in the pavement to the occasional sanglier (wild boar) venturing a little too confidently into the outskirts of town.

Not just parks

When we think of nature in Nice, we tend to think of places like Parc du Mont Boron or Parc Départemental d’Estienne d’Orves, and yes, they’re beautiful. Both are a favourite for our monthly walk & talks

But if you look a bit closer, nature isn’t just “out there”.

It’s in the gaps, the edges, the forgotten corners.
A patch of dry grass behind a building.
A climbing plant reclaiming a wall.
Something flowering where it really shouldn’t.

Not designed, not maintained, just reclaiming some of the neglected little nooks of our concrete jungle.

The ones that got away

Have you ever heard a sudden, almost tropical screech from the trees? Or caught a flash of bright green overhead?

Those are the local parakeets – perruches in French (not perroquet, despite the similarity). Originally escapees, they’ve found Nice’s parks and tree-lined streets surprisingly comfortable.

Another quieter arrival is the Indian Silverbill Finch. Less dramatic, easy to miss, but once you notice them, you start seeing them everywhere. Small, social, often moving in groups.

We’ve had them visiting our balcony, happily picking through wild grasses and flowers grown slightly more for them than for us.

The ones we notice… and complain about

Of course, the wildlife we notice most tends to be the kind that interrupts us.

Mosquitoes (no introduction needed).
Herring gulls (goélands in French) that have become experts in urban foraging.

They’re not always welcome, but they’re also incredibly well adapted. In many ways, they’re just responding to the environment we’ve created.

If anything, they’re a reminder that nature doesn’t disappear in cities, it just changes its behaviour.

Small things, big role

Insects are easy to dismiss as pests, but some of them are doing quite essential work.

Pollinators, for example, quietly keep things going in the background. Without them, those orange trees lining the streets wouldn’t be quite so generously fruitful.

It doesn’t mean you have to love every buzzing creature, but sometimes it’s worth pausing before immediately swatting or spraying.