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Brown Rock Chat Index Increased 3.2% per Year Recently in India

Brown Rock Chat perched on a pale rock in Gurgaon, India
Conservation · Population & status

The 2025 interim update from State of India’s Birds reported revised national trend estimates for the brown rock chat (Oenanthe fusca) in India. The numerical update was released on 6 May 2026 as part of a dataset based on approximately 48 million eBird observations through 31 May 2025.

The current annual trend was estimated at +3.2% per year and clearly supported a recent increase. The long-term numerical estimate was +21.9%, 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 Rapid Increase 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’ distribution range in India at 1,153,181 km². State of India’s Birds lists the brown rock chat as a resident, non-specialized species endemic to the Indian Subcontinent and retains it at Low conservation priority.

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: Brown Rock Chat (Oenanthe fusca), India.National page displaying the 2025 numerical update: long-term trend +21.88% (−2.98 to +50.17), current annual trend +3.15% (+1.36 to +4.95), distribution range 1,153,181 km² (1,152,681–1,153,681), retained categories Stable and Rapid Increase, resident status, non-specialized habitat use, Indian Subcontinent endemicity and Low conservation priority.

Image: Raghav Jerath / Wikimedia Commons — brown rock chat in Gurgaon, Haryana, India, 25 December 2018; 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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