iNaturalist Observations Scraper

hipersoft/inaturalist-scraper

Collect wildlife and plant observations from iNaturalist: species (scientific and common name), place, coordinates, date, quality grade, observer and photos. Filter by taxon, place, quality or date and export as JSON, CSV or Excel for biodiversity research, education and mapping.

Run this scraper →See the API call

Total users

Monthly users

Total runs

Per observation scraped

$0.0002

Last rebuilt

Oct 26, 2026

Overview

Collect wildlife and plant observations from iNaturalist with the iNaturalist Observations Scraper. Pull citizen-science records — species (scientific and common name), place, coordinates, date, quality grade, observer and photos — filtered by taxon, region, quality or date, and export each as JSON, CSV or Excel.

Built for biodiversity and ecology research, education and citizen science, conservation and GIS mapping, and nature apps, it turns millions of observations into a clean, structured dataset.

What it does

🦋 Species records — scientific name, common name, rank and broad group (birds, plants, insects…).
📍 Where & when — place name, latitude/longitude and observation date.
🏅 Quality grade — research-grade, needs-ID or casual, plus identification and comment counts.
📸 Photos — a primary photo plus all photo URLs for each observation.
🎛️ Filters — by species/taxon, region (place ID), quality, date range and photos-only.
📤 Export anywhere — JSON, CSV or Excel, or straight into a map, notebook or app.

Example output

{
  "scientificName": "Panthera tigris",
  "commonName": "Tiger",
  "iconicTaxon": "Mammalia",
  "placeGuess": "Ranthambore, India",
  "latitude": 26.02,
  "longitude": 76.5,
  "observedOn": "2026-09-21",
  "qualityGrade": "research",
  "photo": "https://static.inaturalist.org/photos/.../medium.jpg",
  "url": "https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/402369556"
}

How to use it

Enter a species or taxon name (or a free-text query / region).
Optionally set quality grade, date range and photos-only.
Set Max observations and run. Download as JSON, CSV or Excel.

Input fields

Field	Description
Species / taxon name	Scientific or common name (e.g. Panthera, Monarch).
Free-text search	Optional query across observations.
Place ID	iNaturalist numeric place ID to restrict to a region.
Quality grade	Research-grade, needs-ID or casual.
With photos only	Only observations that include a photo.
Observed from / to	Date range as YYYY-MM-DD.
Sort by	Date added, date observed, faves or ID.
Max observations	Maximum records to collect.

Output fields

id, scientificName, commonName, rank, iconicTaxon, observedOn, createdAt, placeGuess, latitude, longitude, qualityGrade, user, userName, identificationsCount, commentsCount, photoCount, photo, photos, license, url.

Popular use cases

Biodiversity research — build species-occurrence datasets for any region.
Conservation & GIS — map where a species has been recorded over time.
Education & citizen science — pull observations for lessons and projects.
Nature apps — surface recent local sightings with photos.
Analysis — study seasonality and distribution by taxon and place.

FAQ

Do I need an account or key? No. Set your filters and run.

Which observations are included? Public observations across all taxa — animals, plants, fungi and more — with optional filters for research-grade and photos.

Can I restrict to one region? Yes — use a place ID to limit results to a country or area.

Can I get only photographed observations? Yes — keep "With photos only" on (the default).

Can I export to Excel or Google Sheets? Yes — results download as JSON, CSV or Excel and integrate with maps, notebooks and apps.

Structured iNaturalist observation data — species, place, coordinates, date and photos — clean and export-ready for biodiversity research, education and mapping.

Input

Field	Type	Description
`taxonName` Species / taxon name	string	Scientific or common name to filter by, e.g. "Panthera leo", "Monarch" or "Quercus". Leave empty for all species.
`query` Free-text search (optional)	string	Free-text query across observations (place, notes, species). Leave empty to ignore.
`placeId` Place ID (optional)	string	iNaturalist numeric place ID to restrict results to a region (e.g. 1 = United States, 6803 = Canada). Leave empty for worldwide.
`qualityGrade` Quality grade	string · , research, needs_id, casual	Filter by data quality.
`photosOnly` With photos only	boolean	When on, return only observations that include at least one photo. Default: `true`
`dateFrom` Observed from (optional)	string	Earliest observation date, YYYY-MM-DD. Leave empty for no lower bound.
`dateTo` Observed to (optional)	string	Latest observation date, YYYY-MM-DD. Leave empty for no upper bound.
`orderBy` Sort by	string · created_at, observed_on, votes, id	Order of returned observations (newest first). Default: `"created_at"`
`maxItems` Max observations	integer	Maximum number of observations to collect. Default: `200`
`proxyConfiguration` Proxy	object	Proxy used to reach the source. The default (Apify residential) works out of the box; you can switch groups or supply your own if you prefer. Default: `{"useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]}`

API

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/hipersoft~inaturalist-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
  "taxonName": "Panthera"
}'

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("hipersoft/inaturalist-scraper").call(run_input={
    "taxonName": "Panthera"
})

for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN' });
const run = await client.actor('hipersoft/inaturalist-scraper').call({
  "taxonName": "Panthera"
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Pricing

Event	Price	Paid plans from
Observation scraped One iNaturalist observation row	$0.0002	$0.0001

You pay only for what the run returns. Set a maximum cost per run and it stops cleanly at that limit.

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