How to hit the iNaturalist API

iNaturalist's API at https://api.inaturalist.org/v1 serves species (taxa) and observations uploaded by its community of naturalists.

Authentication

None for reading. Keep to about one request a second.

Full reference: https://api.inaturalist.org/v1/docs/

Search species

curl "https://api.inaturalist.org/v1/taxa?q=monarch%20butterfly&per_page=1"
Run in PostTaco
Example response (trimmed) 
{
  "total_results": 2,
  "page": 1,
  "per_page": 1,
  "results": [
    {
      "id": 48662,
      "rank": "species",
      "rank_level": 10,
      "iconic_taxon_id": 47158,
      "ancestor_ids": [
        48460,
        1
      ],
      "is_active": true,
      "name": "Danaus plexippus",
      "parent_id": 48663,
      "ancestry": "48460/1/47120/372739/47158/184884/47157/47224/47922/61244/134169/522900/48663",
      "extinct": false,
      "provisional": false,
      "default_photo": {
        "id": 227923335,
        "license_code": "cc-by-nc-sa",
        "attribution": "(c) Alejandro Lopez, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), uploaded by Alejandro Lopez",
        "url": "https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/227923335/square.jpeg",
        "original_dimensions": {
          "height": 902,
          "width": 1654
        },
        "flags": [],
        "attribution_name": "Alejandro Lopez",
        "square_url": "https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/227923335/square.jpeg",
        "medium_url": "https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/227923335/medium.jpeg"
      },
      "taxon_changes_count": 1,
      "taxon_schemes_count": 6,
      "observations_count": 548572
    }
  ]
}

Recent observations of a species

Research-grade means the community confirmed the identification.

curl "https://api.inaturalist.org/v1/observations?taxon_name=Danaus%20plexippus&quality_grade=research&per_page=2&order_by=observed_on"
Run in PostTaco
Example response (trimmed) 
{
  "total_results": 524043,
  "page": 1,
  "per_page": 2,
  "results": [
    {
      "quality_grade": "research",
      "time_observed_at": "2026-09-23T17:07:12-04:00",
      "taxon_geoprivacy": "open",
      "annotations": [],
      "uuid": "70da0ca5-e0d6-4fee-b9e0-84b519aff5f5",
      "observed_on_details": {
        "date": "2026-09-23",
        "day": 23,
        "month": 9,
        "year": 2026,
        "hour": 17,
        "week": 39
      },
      "id": 402839615,
      "cached_votes_total": 0,
      "identifications_most_agree": true,
      "created_at_details": {
        "date": "2026-09-23",
        "day": 23,
        "month": 9,
        "year": 2026,
        "hour": 17,
        "week": 39
      },
      "species_guess": "Monarch",
      "identifications_most_disagree": false,
      "tags": [],
      "positional_accuracy": 6,
      "comments_count": 0
    },
    {
      "quality_grade": "research",
      "time_observed_at": "2026-09-23T16:54:13-04:00",
      "taxon_geoprivacy": "open",
      "annotations": [
        {
          "uuid": "5946232f-fafe-4f03-bc2e-e990e9dacd73",
          "controlled_attribute_id": 1,
          "controlled_value_id": 6,
          "concatenated_attr_val": "1|6",
          "user_id": 747360,
          "vote_score": 0
        }
      ],
      "uuid": "eb85a325-da04-4c68-814b-3c4787d52102",
      "observed_on_details": {
        "date": "2026-09-23",
        "day": 23,
        "month": 9,
        "year": 2026,
        "hour": 16,
        "week": 39
      },
      "id": 402837181,
      "cached_votes_total": 0,
      "identifications_most_agree": true,
      "created_at_details": {
        "date": "2026-09-23",
        "day": 23,
        "month": 9,
        "year": 2026,
        "hour": 16,
        "week": 39
      },
      "species_guess": "Monarch",
      "identifications_most_disagree": false,
      "tags": [],
      "positional_accuracy": 2,
      "comments_count": 0
    }
  ]
}