Skip to content

Ashy-crowned Sparrow-Lark Index Showed Clear Declines on Both Time Scales in India

Eremopterix griseus, Jawai Bandh, Rajasthan, India
Conservation · Population & status

The 2025 interim update from State of India’s Birds reported updated national trend estimates for the ashy-crowned sparrow-lark (Eremopterix griseus) in India. The revised numerical values were released in May 2026 using an updated national dataset based on citizen-science observations from eBird.

The long-term trend was estimated at −53.4%, while the current annual trend was −3.2% per year. Both updated estimates clearly supported a decline. The species page nevertheless still displays the carried-over 2023 category Trend Inconclusive for both trends; these labels were not recalculated from the 2025 numerical estimates.

The update estimated the species’ Indian distribution range at 1,696,770 km². State of India’s Birds identifies the species as a resident open-habitat specialist endemic to the Indian subcontinent and retains it in the Moderate 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. The assessment 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 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: Ashy-crowned Sparrow Lark (Eremopterix griseus).National species page displaying the 2025 update: long-term trend −53.42% (−59.87 to −45.29), current annual trend −3.23% (−3.97 to −2.49), distribution range size 1,696,770 km² (1,696,234–1,697,306), retained categories Trend Inconclusive for both trends, resident status, open-habitat specialization, Indian Subcontinent endemicity and Moderate conservation priority.

Image: Tisha Mukherjee / Wikimedia Commons — ashy-crowned sparrow-lark at Jawai Bandh, Rajasthan, India, 11 April 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

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

Ashy-crowned Sparrow-Lark Eremopterix griseus 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.