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River Lapwing Index Declined 24.1% Long Term in India, While Recent Trend Was Unclear

River lapwing walking on sandy ground
Conservation · Population & status

The 2025 interim update from State of India’s Birds reported revised national trend estimates for the river lapwing (Vanellus duvaucelii) in India. The numerical update was released on 6 May 2026 using citizen-science data contributed through eBird.

The long-term numerical estimate was −24.1% and clearly supported a long-term decline. The current annual trend was +0.69% per year, but its uncertainty was too broad to establish a clear recent increase or decline. The species page still displays the carried-over 2023 categories Trend Inconclusive for the long-term trend and Stable for the current trend; these labels were not recalculated from the 2025 numerical estimates.

The update estimated the species’ Indian distribution range at 446,812 km². State of India’s Birds lists the river lapwing as a wetland specialist that is resident and locally migratory in India, non-endemic to India, and at Low conservation priority; its global Red List category is Near Threatened.

The interim release revised numerical distribution and trend values for 942 previously assessed Indian bird species using approximately 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 assessment categories themselves were not recalculated in this update.

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 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: River Lapwing (Vanellus duvaucelii), India.National page displaying the 2025 update: long-term numerical trend −24.08% (−42.00 to −3.08), current annual trend +0.69% (−1.11 to +2.50), distribution range 446,812 km² (446,335–447,289), retained categories Trend Inconclusive and Stable, resident and local-migrant status, wetland specialization, non-endemicity, Low conservation priority and global Near Threatened status.

Image: Badal Sarker (Bcsarker) / Wikimedia Commons — river lapwing in Bangladesh, 26 December 2022; 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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