EBird Get Taxon Groups

Overview

Get the list of bird taxonomic groups from eBird (Cornell Lab of Ornithology). Returns all bird groups (e.g., Waterfowl, Raptors, Owls, Hummingbirds, Woodpeckers, Sparrows) with their taxonomic order bounds. Two grouping systems are available: 'merlin' (simplified groups used in the Merlin Bird ID app, ~30 groups) and 'ebird' (full eBird taxonomy groups, ~217 groups). Each group has a name, display order, and taxon order bounds that map to species in the full taxonomy. Useful for categorizing species into familiar bird groups. Can be localized to different languages. No API key required.

Status

The most recent probe succeeded. Safe to call from the agent today.

Last probed

1d ago

Last success

1d ago

Last latency

354ms

Schema

JSON Schema the agent (or your API call) must match.

{
  "properties": {
    "groupNameLocale": {
      "description": "Language code for group names (e.g., 'en' for English, 'es' for Spanish, 'fr' for French, 'de' for German). Defaults to 'en'.",
      "type": [
        "string",
        "null"
      ]
    },
    "speciesGrouping": {
      "description": "Grouping system to use. 'merlin' returns ~30 simplified groups used in the Merlin Bird ID app (Waterfowl, Hawks/Eagles, Owls, Hummingbirds, etc.). 'ebird' returns ~217 detailed taxonomic groups (Ostriches, Kiwis, Ducks/Geese/Swans, etc.).",
      "type": "string"
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "speciesGrouping"
  ],
  "type": "object"
}

Examples (1)

{
  "speciesGrouping": ""
}

Identifiers

Catalog ID

tu_eBird_get_taxon_groups

Tool name

eBird_get_taxon_groups

Added

2026-05-01 00:58Z

Tags

tooluniverse