State of India’s Birds, 2023: Range, trends and conservation status

The State of India’s Birds (SoIB) is a periodic, national-level examination of the distribution range and abundance trends of Indian birds that aids in formulating conservation plans. The SoIB last came out in 2020 evaluating 867 species. This 2023 report updates and expands on the previous one by evaluating 942 species, adding data from 20 million additional reports and refining the analytical methodology. The report evaluates the status of the birds through three indices. ‘Long-term trends’ (change over 30 years) and ‘Current annual trends’ (change over past eight years) and the third index is measuring ‘Distribution range size’ within India. These indices are evaluated along with the IUCN global Red List of Threatened Species 2022 to slot species into three conservation categories: high priority, moderate priority and low priority. The report also lists species of highest conservation priority for each state and union territory to enable targeted action. Birds are grouped according to shared ecology, habitat, diet and behavior to understand driving factors of population change better...