Tools

13 tools for working with GBIF species taxonomy, occurrence records, datasets, and publishers:

gbif_match_species

Match a scientific or common name against the GBIF backbone taxonomy.

• Fuzzy matching handles minor typos and vernacular names; set strict: true for exact-only matching
• Returns taxonKey — the backbone key required by gbif_search_occurrences, gbif_count_occurrences, and gbif_occurrence_facets
• Confidence score 0–100; below 80 warrants review
• Full classification hierarchy with keys at each rank: kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species
• matchType NONE indicates no usable match — try removing strict mode or broadening the name
• Resolves synonyms: always returns the accepted backbone key regardless of which name form was queried; matchedTaxonKey carries the synonym's own key when the two differ
• kingdom disambiguates a name that appears in more than one kingdom, and is rejected when supplied blank: GBIF drops a blank one and matches against the whole backbone — Parus major resolves to taxon 9705453 with kingdom= exactly as it does with no kingdom at all, where Plantae resolves to 9711704 — so the undisambiguated answer would come back looking like a disambiguated one. Omit the field to match against the whole backbone

gbif_bulk_match_species

Match up to 50 scientific names against the GBIF backbone taxonomy in a single call.

• The batch counterpart to gbif_match_species — built for checklist, inventory, and species-list workflows that would otherwise need one round trip per name
• Returns one result per input name, in input order; each carries taxonKey, matchType, and confidence
• Per-name isolation: an unmatched name yields matchType NONE and a per-name lookup failure yields matchType ERROR with the message and, when the failure was classified, a reason — neither sinks the rest of the batch
• Same synonym resolution as gbif_match_species: taxonKey is the accepted taxon, matchedTaxonKey the synonym it was queried under
• strict: true requires an exact match for every name; common names are not supported (use gbif_search_species)

gbif_get_species

Fetch a complete taxon record by GBIF backbone key.

• Full classification, authorship string, and vernacular (English) name when available
• taxonomicStatus: ACCEPTED, SYNONYM, DOUBTFUL — when SYNONYM, acceptedKey and accepted identify the current name
• numDescendants and numOccurrences for scope at a glance
• extinct field present only when explicitly flagged — not false on unlabeled taxa
• publishedIn carries the original description citation when available

gbif_search_species

Search or browse the GBIF backbone taxonomy.

• Accepts name fragments matching scientific and vernacular names
• Filter by rank, kingdom, family, or genus to scope browsing
• kingdom, family, and genus are given as names and resolved to a backbone key before the search runs, since /species/search scopes by key alone. The narrowest one supplied is what scopes — the three nest, and GBIF combines two keys with OR rather than AND. kingdom supplied beside family or genus disambiguates that name instead of scoping on its own: Prunella names both a bird genus and a plant genus and resolves to neither without it
• Names are matched exactly and capitalized as GBIF writes them, so paridae and Paridaee fail as unresolved_taxon_scope rather than being ignored. An alternative family name lands on the taxon it is a synonym of — Compositae scopes to Asteraceae. A family and genus in different lineages fail as conflicting_taxon_scope. The scope actually applied comes back in the enrichment
• isExtinct filter for extinct vs. extant taxa
• Scope to a specific checklist dataset with datasetKey — omit the field for the GBIF backbone. GBIF reads a higher-taxon key inside the checklist that key belongs to, so pairing datasetKey with a kingdom, family, or genus matches nothing unless the checklist is the backbone; the empty-result notice says so
• q, kingdom, family, genus, and datasetKey are rejected when supplied blank rather than dropped: a blank datasetKey returns the unfiltered backbone result, and q= returns the whole 46,623,754-name index where q= with a space returns nothing. Omit a filter to leave it off — see the note under gbif_search_occurrences
• Paginated — limit up to 1000, use offset to walk through large groups

gbif_get_species_classification

Return the root-to-parent classification chain for a taxon as an ordered array.

• Root-first from kingdom down to the immediate parent of the queried taxon (kingdom → phylum → class → … → parent)
• The queried taxon itself is not included — use gbif_get_species for its own record
• Each entry: rank, canonical name, scientific name, taxon key
• Useful for building taxonomic trees or placing an unfamiliar taxon in context without manual backbone navigation

gbif_get_species_children

List direct children of a backbone taxon.

• Genera within a family, species within a genus, subspecies within a species
• Each child: key, name, rank, taxonomic status, common name, occurrence count, descendant count
• Paginated — limit up to 1000, iterate with offset for large groups like Coleoptera

gbif_search_occurrences

Search 3.9B+ GBIF occurrence records with full Darwin Core filtering.