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Updated India Estimates Showed No Clear Trend for White-rumped Shama

White-rumped Shama in Buxa Tiger Reserve, India
Conservation · Population & status

The 2025 interim update from State of India’s Birds provided revised national trend estimates for the white-rumped shama (Copsychus malabaricus) in India. The updated dataset was released on 6 May 2026 and is based on citizen-science observations submitted to eBird.

The new long-term numerical estimate was +22.3%, while the current annual estimate was −0.57% per year. Uncertainty around both was too broad to establish a clear increase or decline on either time scale. The species page still displays the carried-over 2023 category Stable for both trends; these labels were not recalculated from the 2025 numerical estimates.

The update estimated the species’ distribution range in India at 591,337 km². State of India’s Birds describes the white-rumped shama as a resident forest specialist and retains it in the Low conservation-priority category.

The interim release revised numerical values for distribution range size, long-term trend and current annual trend 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, while the assessment categories themselves remained those from the 2023 assessment.

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: White-rumped Shama (Copsychus malabaricus), India.Species page displaying the 2025 numerical update: long-term trend +22.27% (−6.96 to +61.27), current annual trend −0.57% (−2.32 to +1.18), distribution range size 591,337 km² (590,829–591,845), retained categories Stable for both trends, resident status, forest specialization and Low conservation priority.

Image: Shiv’s fotografia / Wikimedia Commons — white-rumped shama in Buxa Tiger Reserve, India, 29 February 2024; cropped to 16:9. Representative image for this story; not presented as an animal or scene from the reported study or event. · CC BY 4.0 · Source

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