Science API

Research access & documentation

Art of Birding shares aggregated, privacy-safe species detections from our backyard listening network — free for researchers, educators, and independent projects. Audio never leaves the listener’s device. You receive species metadata only.

Getting started

Register with your name, email, organization, and a short description of your project (30+ characters).
Confirm your email with the link we send. Your API key is issued only after confirmation and shown once — copy it immediately.
Call GET /api/v1/science/observations with your key (see authentication below).

Base URL: https://artofbirding.com

Authentication

Every Science API request requires a valid active key. Keys look like aob_sci_live_… (prefix + 32 alphanumeric characters). Send the key with either header:

X-Science-API-Key: aob_sci_live_…
Authorization: Bearer aob_sci_live_…

curl -s "https://artofbirding.com/api/v1/science/observations?limit=10" \
  -H "X-Science-API-Key: aob_sci_live_YOUR_KEY"

curl -s "https://artofbirding.com/api/v1/science/observations?species=cardinal&from=2026-01-01&limit=50" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer aob_sci_live_YOUR_KEY"

We store only a one-way hash of your key. If you lose it, contact hello@artofbirding.com — we can suspend the old registration so you can register again with the same email after support clears it.

Observations endpoint

GET /api/v1/science/observations

Parameter	Type	Description
species	string	Case-insensitive substring match on common or scientific name.
geohash	string	Prefix filter on coarse geohash (precision 4). Example: `dhwv`.
from	date	Inclusive start (`YYYY-MM-DD` or ISO timestamp).
to	date	Inclusive end (`YYYY-MM-DD` or ISO timestamp).
limit	integer	Max rows to return. Default 100, maximum 500.

Results are newest-first. Empty filters return the most recent network observations up to limit.

Response fields

Successful responses look like:

{
  "observations": [
    {
      "commonName": "Northern Cardinal",
      "scientificName": "Cardinalis cardinalis",
      "confidence": 0.86,
      "observedOn": "2026-08-10",
      "geohash": "dhwv",
      "regionLabel": "FL, US"
    }
  ],
  "meta": {
    "count": 1,
    "limit": 10,
    "geohashPrecision": 4
  }
}

Field	Meaning
commonName	English common name from on-device identification.
scientificName	Scientific name when available.
confidence	Model confidence rounded to two decimals (0–1).
observedOn	UTC calendar day of the detection (`YYYY-MM-DD`).
geohash	Coarse geohash (precision 4 ≈ city/region). Never home GPS.
regionLabel	Optional coarse label such as state/country when known.
meta.geohashPrecision	Currently 4 for all science responses.

What you can and cannot access

Included

Species names and rounded confidence
UTC observation day
Coarse geohash / regional label
Network-wide detections (not tied to a named household)

Never included

Audio, waveforms, or recordings
Subscriber name, email, or address
Precise latitude/longitude or street-level location
Account ids, device ids, display keys, or billing data

Identification runs on members’ Wi‑Fi microphones or phone listeners. Only species metadata is synced to Art of Birding. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use for the full legal framing.

Rate limits & errors

60 requests per minute per API key (free tier).
401 — missing, invalid, pending, or suspended key. Register or confirm at /researchers/signup.
429 — rate limit exceeded; wait and retry.

Unauthorized responses use this shape:

{
  "error": "unauthorized",
  "message": "A valid Science API Key is required. Register for free at https://artofbirding.com/researchers"
}

Attribution & acceptable use

The Science API is free for non-commercial research, education, and conservation work.
Provide attribution such as: “Species detections courtesy of Art of Birding (artofbirding.com).”
Do not attempt to re-identify households, scrape beyond the rate limit, or request raw audio.
We may suspend keys that abuse the service or violate these terms.

Questions: hello@artofbirding.com

Get a free API key Citizen science on the homepage