Occurrence image API

GBIF run an image crop-and-resize server and cache to support display of occurrence images on www.gbif.org and other uses.

Note that occurrence images may be licensed under more restrictive terms than other occurrence data. Refer to the relevant terms in the multimedia extensions, or contact the publisher of the dataset.

Usage

The server runs Thumbor, so for general instructions on cropping, resizing and so on see the Thumbor documentation.

To retrieve an occurrence image, use a URL of the form

https://api.gbif.org/v1/image/cache/occurrence/[gbifId]/media/[md5sum(identifier)]

where [gbifId] is the key of the occurrence, and [md5sum(identifier)] is the MD5 checksum in hexadecimal format of the .media[].identifier URL.

For example, the occurrence 2005380410 with media identifier https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/31610070/original.jpg may be accessed (and optionally resized, cropped and so on) with URLs like

https://api.gbif.org/v1/image/cache/occurrence/2005380410/media/568639b65b65ddb9090d3d6ef1abce14
https://api.gbif.org/v1/image/cache/200x/occurrence/2005380410/media/568639b65b65ddb9090d3d6ef1abce14
Image example

Limitations

Please limit scripted usage of this API to a single HTTP connection.

The maximum image resolution available through the server is 1200×1200px. The JPEG quality of larger images is limited to 85. For the highest resolution image, download from the publisher’s server.