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
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.
Images are only added to the cache when they are requested by an API or website user. If an image is not present in the cache, it may be slow to load or fail to load. Failures may be temporary or permanent, this depending on the publisher.