eBird Scrapers

Although eBird has an API, not all the information from the database is available. The API, for example, does not return links to any uploaded photos; comments on an individual observation are also missing. eBird Scrapers is a set of scrapers for extracting data from various pages on the eBird web site. It complements the API, giving access to all the data that eBird makes publicly available.

Install

pip install ebird-scrapers

Usage

Scraping the data from a page is as simple as a function call. For example to get all the data from a checklist use get_checklist() and pass in the unique identifier generated when the checklist was submitted to the eBird database:

from ebird.scrapers import get_checklist

data = get_checklist("S38429565")

The function returns a dict with keys for the location, date, observers, etc.

You can also get the complete list of checklists from the "Recent Checklists" page, e.g. https://ebird.org/region/US-MA/recent-checklists. From there you can download each checklist:

from ebird.scrapers import get_checklist, get_recent_checklists

for item in get_recent_checklists("US-MA"):
    checklist = get_checklist(item["identifier"])

The data returned by get_checklist looks like this:

{
  "identifier": "S928130259",
  "date": datetime.datetime(2025, 2, 22, 10, 24),
  "observer": {
    "identifier": "USER000001",
    "name": "Etta Lemon"
  },
  "participants": [
    {
      "identifier": "USER000002",
      "name": "Catherine Hall",
    }
  ],
  "protocol": {
    "name": "Stationary"
  },
  "location": {
    "name": "Turkey Hill Meadow Natural Area",
    "identifier": "L11485440",
    "subnational2": "Tompkins County",
    "subnational2_code": "US-NY-109",
    "subnational1": "New York",
    "subnational1_code": "US-NY",
    "country": "United States",
    "country_code": "US",
    "lat": "42.4410439",
    "lon": "-76.430538"
  },
  "entries": [
    {
      "species": "Mourning Dove",
      "count": 3,
      "comments": "Three individuals",
      "media": [
        {"identifier": "235672715"},
        {"identifier": "235672716"},
        {"identifier": "235672718"}
      ]
    },
    {
      "species": {
        "common-name": "Red-tailed Hawk (borealis)",
        "scientific-name": "Buteo jamaicensis borealis",
      },
      "count": 1
    },
    {
      "species": {
        "common-name": "European Starling",
        "scientific-name": "Sturnus vulgaris",
      },
      "count": 75.
      "comments": "Single flock.",
    },
    {
      "species": {
        "common-name": "Eastern Bluebird",
        "scientific-name": "Sialia sialis",
      },
      "count": 2,
      "breeding-code": {
        "code": 0,
        "name": "Flyover (Observed)"
      }
    },
    {
      "species": {
        "common-name": "American Robin",
        "scientific-name": "Turdus migratorius",
      },
      "count": 24
    },
    {
      "species": {
        "common-name": "Red-winged Blackbird (Red-winged)",
        "scientific-name": "Agelaius phoeniceus",
      },
      "count": 13
      "age-sex": {
        "Age": ["Juvenile", "Immature", "Adult", "Age Unknown"],
        "Male": [0, 0, 4, 2],
        "Female": [0, 0, 0, 3],
        "Sex Unknown": [0, 0, 0, 4]}}
    },
    {
      "species": {
        "common-name": "Common Grackle (Bronzed)",
        "scientific-name": "Quiscalus quiscula versicolor",
      },
      "count": 1
    }
  ],
  "comment": "Partly cloudy 39.9°F (4.4°C) Humidity: 93%Wind: SSW 4 mph (Gusts: 6.8 mph) Barometer: 29.7 in (1006 mb) Visibility: 9 miLast Update: 25 Feb 16:45\nSubmitted from eBird for iOS, version 3.2.16",
  "complete": True
}

Project Information

• Issues: https://github.com/ProjectBabbler/ebird-scrapers/issues
• Repository: https://github.com/ProjectBabbler/ebird-scrapers

The app is tested on Python 3.8+.

eBird Scrapers is released under the terms of the MIT license.