GET /species/search

gbif.org:gbif-api

Summary: Search species/taxa
Operation ID: searchSpecies
Auth: unknown
Description

Search for taxonomic information in the GBIF backbone taxonomy.

Parameters (6)

datasetKey (string, query, optional)

Dataset key for the taxonomy (default is GBIF backbone)

kingdom (string, query, optional)

Kingdom name

limit (integer, query, optional, default: 20)

Number of results to return (max 1000)

Constraints: {'maximum': 1000}

offset (integer, query, optional, default: 0)

Offset for pagination

q (string, query, optional)

Search query (scientific or vernacular name)

rank (string, query, optional)

Taxonomic rank filter

Constraints: {'enum': ['DOMAIN', 'SUPERKINGDOM', 'KINGDOM', 'SUBKINGDOM', 'INFRAKINGDOM', 'SUPERPHYLUM', 'PHYLUM', 'SUBPHYLUM', 'INFRAPHYLUM', 'SUPERCLASS', 'CLASS', 'SUBCLASS', 'INFRACLASS', 'SUPERORDER', 'ORDER', 'SUBORDER', 'INFRAORDER', 'SUPERFAMILY', 'FAMILY', 'SUBFAMILY', 'TRIBE', 'SUBTRIBE', 'GENUS', 'SUBGENUS', 'SECTION', 'SUBSECTION', 'SERIES', 'SUBSERIES', 'SPECIES', 'SUBSPECIES', 'INFRASPECIFIC_NAME', 'VARIETY', 'SUBVARIETY', 'FORM', 'SUBFORM', 'PATHOVAR', 'BIOVAR', 'CHEMOVAR', 'MORPHOVAR', 'PHAGOVAR', 'SEROVAR', 'CHEMOFORM', 'FORMA_SPECIALIS', 'CULTIVAR', 'STRAIN', 'OTHER', 'UNRANKED']}

Examples (5)

TitleTypeURLAction
Search for species by scientific name curl https://api.gbif.org/v1/species/search?q=Puma+concolor
Search for genus with result limit curl https://api.gbif.org/v1/species/search?q=Panthera&rank=GENUS&limit=5
Search for taxa in a specific dataset curl https://api.gbif.org/v1/species/search?q=Aves&rank=CLASS&datasetKey=d7dddbf4-2cf0-4f39-9b2a-99b0f65f1b14&limit=10
Name backbone lookup for scientific name doc_extracted https://api.gbif.org/v1/species/search?q=Pan%20troglodytes
Search Species probe-gate https://api.gbif.org/v1/species/search?limit=20&offset=0

Probe History

Latency

Status Codes

TimeStatusLatencySize
2026-03-23 10:30:57.599049 200 337ms
2026-03-23 10:29:06.420471 200 195ms
2026-03-23 10:27:00.516159 200 190ms
2026-03-23 09:39:19.030673 200 169ms
2026-03-23 09:28:33.218816 200 153ms

Response Changes

WhenOldNew
2026-03-23 09:39:19.030673 b3ddbf4525f2 85fe0c6b64ae
2026-03-23 10:27:00.516159 85fe0c6b64ae e77c8a0d5bff
2026-03-23 10:29:06.420471 e77c8a0d5bff 7e5364e01e10
2026-03-23 10:30:57.599049 7e5364e01e10 4a6d5c7329af