State of India's Birds 2023: 60% of species long-term decline, 104 new High Priority entrants

Birds have been an inalienable part of Indian folklore and children’s stories. But apart from being potent cultural symbols, birds also have a huge ecological significance and have been considered important markers of the state of our natural world. But a recent report released on August 25 shows a worrying trend. The State of Indian Birds 2023 report analyses and showcases the trends in 942 Indian bird species over the long term as well as in recent years. The findings from the report are particularly alarming for migratory birds and birds that live in key habitats like open ecosystems, rivers, and coasts.

Highlights from the report

• 942 Indian birds assessed for conservation priority
• 30,000 birdwatchers contributed 30 million observations analysed for trends and distribution
• 217 species stable or increasing in the last eight years
• 204 species declining in the past three decades
• 178 species classified as High Conservation Priority
• 14 species, including Indian Roller, recommended for IUCN Red List reassessment
• Asian Koel has increased in the past three decades
• Indian Peafowl continues to thrive
• Birds that live in key habitats like open ecosystems, rivers, and coasts have declined
• Raptors, migratory shorebirds, and ducks have declined the most

Findings 

The report notes at the outset that worldwide, common and widespread species are declining. However, the problem in India is especially grave because of the lack of information. Primarily, because it has meant that conservation attention has been focused on only a few species which are usually large, charismatic, and threatened, the report observes.

The IUCN Red List has previously shown that 49% of bird species worldwide are declining in population, compared with only 6% increasing. The report notes that the overall outcome of the assessments in India largely reflects this global trend: some generalist species are doing well, while many bird species show various degrees of decline. For instance, generalist species like feral Rock Pigeon, Ashy Prinia, Asian Koel, and Indian Peafowl are doing very well. Other common species like the Baya Weaver and Pied Bushchat are relatively stable. 

But the larger picture is showing a declining trend.

• As per the report, habitat specialists (found only in some habitats in the country)—particularly birds of grasslands and other open habitats, wetlands, and woodlands—are declining rapidly.
• In terms of diet, carnivores, insectivores, and granivores are declining more rapidly than omnivores or fruit- and nectar-eaters.
• Separately, migratory species appear to be under greater threat than non-migrants.
• And species endemic to the Western Ghats–Sri Lanka region are faring worse than others.
• Certain groups of birds are faring particularly poorly, including open habitat species like bustards and coursers, riverine sandbar-nesting birds like skimmers and some terns, coastal shorebirds, open-country raptors, and a number of ducks. 

Lack of data and reasons

The finding that a large number of common species are in trouble is a cause for concern. Equally worrying is that a considerable number of species lack the data to be assessed. Insufficiency of data has meant that of the 942 species covered in this report, the Long-term Trend could not be calculated for 44% and the Current Annual Trend could not be estimated for 31% of the species. 

The report further lists the factors affecting bird species in India. Land-use change, urbanization, ecosystem degradation, monocultures, disease, infrastructure development, pet trade, hunting, pollution, and climate change have been identified as the primary factors. The report also summarises implications that flow from the findings and makes broad recommendations for bird conservation in the country, which are covered in detail in separate articles on Groundreport.

Comparison with State of India Birds 2020 

Out of the 101 birds categorised as High Concern (i.e., Priority) in 2020, 74 remain in the same category. An additional 104 species have been newly listed as High Priority in 2023. Most of these additions (68% of the 104 species) have resulted from the increased trend data, resulting in one or both trends being calculated more precisely where they were insufficient or inconclusive earlier. This implies that unavailability or imprecision of trends is often associated with an ongoing decline and should be treated with concern.

Out of the newly listed High Priority species, 16 of them were assessed for the first time. However, about 88 of them were uplisted from the 2020 status report. Among the 25 High Concern (Priority) species that got downlisted to lower priority, nine showed a more encouraging trend than previously. At the same time, eight increased their estimated range, likely due to increased data availability. Additionally, four species that were earlier categorised as Declining and of High Concern (i.e. priority) did not have conclusive trends.

About the report

The State of India’s Birds (SoIB 2023) report is a periodic assessment of the distribution range, trends in abundance, and conservation status for most of the bird species that regularly occur in India. The report which was launched on Friday is the second iteration, after the first one which was released in 2020. SoIB 2023 is a partnership of six government institutions and seven conservation NGOs, together with several independent professionals.

The report provides an in-depth analysis of the distribution range size of 942 Indian birds and their trends in abundance in both the long term (over 25+ years) and currently (since 2015). The data for the report was acquired from over 30 million observations uploaded to the eBird platform by more than 30,000 birdwatchers. This data from birdwatchers' observations was combined with supporting information for each species — including their taxonomic grouping, habitat, migration, endemicity and diet.

Using the above-mentioned data plus information from the IUCN Red List of global threat status, the report places Indian species into Low, Moderate and High categories of Conservation Priority for India. As per the report, many species considered common and widespread earlier find themselves as of High Conservation Priority. 

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