Toolbox

GBIF species observations to geodata

PhotoConversionVector
Download species observations from the public GBIF API for a given bounding box and/or country. Can be filtered by taxon, kingdom, record type (observations / specimens / fossils), observation date, media presence and license. Output is a GeoPackage with one point layer 'occurrences'. Hard limit: 10 000 records per run.
Demo
Area of interest (west, south, east, north in WGS84). Leave empty to search globally — in that case you almost always need a country, taxon, kingdom or tight date window, otherwise the query will exceed the 10 000-record limit.
Two-letter country code (e.g. 'DE', 'FR', 'US'). Filters by the country where the occurrence was recorded. Combined with 'Bounding box' if both are set (AND).
Scientific taxon name (e.g. 'Bubo bubo', 'Fagus sylvatica', 'Coleoptera'). Leave empty to download observations for all species matching the other filters.
Select one taxonomic kingdom. Combined with 'Taxon name' if both are set (AND).
Which categories of GBIF records to include. 'Wild observations & specimens' (default) covers the typical ecological use case — it excludes zoo/botanical-garden (LIVING_SPECIMEN) records.
Lower bound of observation date. Format: YYYY-MM-DD.
Upper bound of observation date. Format: YYYY-MM-DD.
Restrict to records that have at least one image attached (mediaType=StillImage). Default: off.
Restrict to records licensed CC0 or CC-BY (excludes CC-BY-NC). Default: off (all licences).
Exclude records that GBIF has flagged with geospatial quality issues (hasGeospatialIssue=false). Default: on.

Docs

Downloads species observations from the public GBIF API for a given bounding box, optionally filtered by taxon (scientific name), kingdom, quality grade, wildness and observation date. Hard limit: 10 000 records per run.

Inputs:

  • Bounding box - draw your area of interest on the map or enter coordinates in decimal degrees (West, South, East, North in WGS84).

  • Country code (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2) - two-letter country code (e.g. ‘DE’, ‘FR’, ‘US’). Filters by the country where the occurrence was recorded. Combined with ‘Bounding box’ if both are set (AND).

  • Taxon name - scientific name (e.g. Bubo bubo). Leave empty to download all species in the area.

  • Kingdom. Select one iconic taxon group (Birds, Plants, Insects, Fungi, Mammals, etc). Combines with ‘Taxon name’ if both are set. Options:

    • Animalia

    • Archaea

    • Bacteria

    • Chromista

    • Fungi

    • Plataea

    • Protozoa

    • Viruses

  • Record type - which categories of GBIF records to include. ‘Wild observations & specimens’ (default) covers the typical ecological use case — it excludes zoo/botanical-garden (LIVING_SPECIMEN) records.

  • Observation date from - Lower bound of observation date. Format: YYYY-MM-DD.

  • Observation date to - Upper bound of observation date. Format: YYYY-MM-DD.

  • Only with photo - restrict to records that have at least one image attached (mediaType=StillImage). Default: off.

  • Only commercially reusable licences - restrict to records licensed CC0 or CC-BY (excludes CC-BY-NC). Default: off (all licences).

  • Exclude records with geospatial issues - exclude records that GBIF has flagged with geospatial quality issues (hasGeospatialIssue=false). Default: on.

Outputs:

  • GeoPackage with one point layer ‘observations’;

  • Report;

  • JSON.

Example:

_images/gbif_download_result_en.png

Example output file opened in QGIS

Try the tool in action

  1. Click on the Demo button above the tool form. The fields are filled in with demo values.

  2. Click on the Run button.

See also

PhotoConversionVector