diff --git a/pygeoapi/api.py b/pygeoapi/api.py
index 7cf5cdd..c549864 100644
--- a/pygeoapi/api.py
+++ b/pygeoapi/api.py
@@ -461,7 +461,7 @@ class API(object):
 
         properties = []
         reserved_fieldnames = ['bbox', 'f', 'limit', 'startindex',
-                               'resulttype', 'datetime']
+                               'resulttype', 'datetime', 'sortby']
         formats = FORMATS
         formats.extend(f.lower() for f in PLUGINS['formatter'].keys())