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Eurasian Hoopoe Index Showed Clear Declines on Both Time Scales in India

Eurasian hoopoe feeding in Keoladeo National Park, India
Conservation · Population & status

The 2025 interim update from State of India’s Birds reported revised national numerical estimates for Eurasian hoopoe (Upupa epops) in India. The numerical update was released on 6 May 2026.

The long-term numerical trend was estimated at −46.4%, while the current annual estimate was −2.3% per year. Both updated estimates clearly supported a decline. The species page still carries the 2023 categories Decline for the long-term trend and Trend Inconclusive for the current annual trend because these qualitative categories were not recalculated from the 2025 numerical estimates.

The species’ modelled distribution range in India was estimated at 2,109,267 km². State of India’s Birds describes the Eurasian hoopoe as a within-India migrant and winter migrant, without clear habitat specialization and non-endemic to India, and retains it in the Moderate 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.

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 Eurasian Hoopoe, the India-wide update estimated a long-term change of −46.4% (95% CI −51.4 to −40.7), a current annual trend of −2.3% (−2.8 to −1.7), and a distribution range of about 2,109,267 km².

Image: © Giles Laurent, gileslaurent.com, License CC BY-SA — Eurasian hoopoe (Upupa epops) feeding in Keoladeo National Park, Rajasthan, India, 15 March 2023. Representative species image, not linked to the national trend analysis. Source: Wikimedia Commons. · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source

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