Skip to content

Medium Egret’s Recent India-wide Trend Was Estimated at −2% per Year

Medium Egret standing in shallow wetland vegetation in Bhigwan, India
Conservation · Population & status

The 2025 interim update from State of India’s Birds reported updated national trend estimates for the medium egret (Ardea intermedia) 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 −2% per year and clearly supported a recent decline. The long-term numerical estimate was +3.6%, 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 Increase for the long-term trend; these labels were not recalculated from the 2025 numerical estimates.

The update estimated the species’ Indian distribution range at 2,216,782 km². State of India’s Birds describes the medium egret as a resident wetland specialist and continues to show 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: Intermediate Egret (Ardea intermedia).Species page displaying the 2025 national update: current annual trend −1.98% (−2.48 to −1.49), long-term trend +3.64% (−5.66 to +15.02), distribution range size 2,216,782 km² (2,216,299–2,217,265), retained categories Trend Inconclusive (current) and Increase (long-term), resident status, wetland specialization, non-endemic status and Low conservation priority.

Image: Tisha Mukherjee / Wikimedia Commons — medium egret in Bhigwan, Maharashtra, India, 7 August 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

Medium Egret Ardea intermedia 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.