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Black-rumped Flameback’s Recent India-wide Trend Was Estimated at +1.1% per Year

Black-rumped Flameback clinging to a tree trunk in West Bengal, India
Conservation · Population & status

The 2025 interim update from State of India’s Birds reported updated national trend estimates for the black-rumped flameback (Dinopium benghalense) in India. The revised numerical values were released in May 2026 as part of a dataset based on citizen-science observations from eBird.

The current annual trend was estimated at +1.1% per year and clearly supported a recent increase. The long-term numerical estimate was +1.7%, but its uncertainty was too broad to establish a clear long-term increase or decline. The species page still displays the carried-over 2023 categories Trend Inconclusive for the current trend and Stable for the long-term trend; these labels were not recalculated from the 2025 numerical estimates.

The update estimated the species’ Indian distribution range at 1,644,950 km². State of India’s Birds describes the black-rumped flameback as a resident, non-specialist species endemic to the Indian subcontinent and retains it in the Low conservation-priority category.

The 2025 interim update revised numerical distribution and trend values for 942 previously assessed Indian bird species using approximately 48 million field observations uploaded to eBird through 31 May 2025. The trend values describe change in a reporting-based abundance index rather than direct counts of individual birds. Conservation-priority categories themselves were not recalculated in this interim release.

Sources and image credit

  1. State of India’s Birds Partnership. (2026). State of India’s Birds: Range, trends, and conservation status (Version 2) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20036633Primary 2026 dataset release created 6 May 2026. Version 2 updated the numerical distribution range size, long-term trend and current annual trend values for 942 previously evaluated species using approximately 48 million eBird observations through 31 May 2025; the assessment categories were unchanged.
  2. State of India’s Birds Partnership. (2025). State of India’s Birds factsheet: Black-rumped Flameback (Dinopium benghalense).Species page displaying the 2025 national update: current annual trend +1.14% (+0.22 to +2.05), long-term trend +1.71% (−9.64 to +15.57), distribution range size 1,644,950 km² (1,644,481–1,645,419), retained categories Trend Inconclusive (current) and Stable (long-term), resident status, non-specialized habitat use, Indian Subcontinent endemicity, and Low conservation priority.

Image: Durodorshi / Wikimedia Commons — black-rumped flameback in West Bengal, India, 27 February 2025; cropped to 16:9. Representative image for this story; not presented as an animal or scene from the reported study or event. · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source

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