Skip to content

Asian Openbill Index Showed Clear Long-term Increase in India, While Recent Trend Was Unclear

Asian openbill standing in green wetland vegetation
Conservation · Population & status

The 2025 interim update from State of India’s Birds reported revised national numerical estimates for Asian openbill (Anastomus oscitans) in India. The numerical update was released on 6 May 2026.

The long-term numerical trend was estimated at +90.3% and clearly supported a long-term increase. The current annual estimate was −0.6% per year, but the uncertainty was broad enough that the recent change could not be distinguished clearly from little or no change. The species page retains the 2023 categories Increase for the long-term trend and Trend Inconclusive for the current annual trend.

The species’ modelled distribution range in India was estimated at 1,991,273 km². State of India’s Birds describes the Asian openbill as resident, specialised for wetlands and non-endemic to India, and retains it in the Low conservation-priority category.

The interim release updated numerical range and trend estimates for 942 previously assessed bird species using about 48 million eBird observations through 31 May 2025. The trend values describe change in a reporting-based abundance index rather than direct counts of individual birds. The conservation categories from the 2023 assessment were not recalculated.

Sources and image credit

  1. State of India’s Birds Partnership. (2026). State of India’s Birds: Range, trends, and conservation status – 2025 interim update (Version 2) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20036633Primary 2026 release, created 6 May 2026. For Asian Openbill, the India-wide update estimated a long-term change of +90.3% (95% CI +65.7 to +120.8), a current annual trend of −0.6% (−1.4 to +0.3), and a distribution range of about 1,991,273 km².

Image: Asian openbill, photographed 14 April 2016. Representative image; not linked to the national trend analysis. Photo: Tareq's Photography / Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0. · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source

About this content: This story was produced with AI assistance within an editorial workflow developed by Wildlife Vagabond. Editorial responsibility remains with Wildlife Vagabond.How AI is used

Population & status

SPECIES IN THIS STORY

Species in this story

Asian Openbill Anastomus oscitans Explore species

Independent research and conservation news archive

Did you find this information useful?

Wildlife Vagabond is independently built and maintained. Voluntary support helps cover source verification, hosting and continued work on research and conservation news.

Support Wildlife Vagabond

The news archive will remain freely available.