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Updated India Estimates Put Painted Stork at +24.7% Long Term but −1.5% per Year Recently

Painted stork catching a fish in shallow water
Conservation · Population & status

The 2025 interim update from State of India’s Birds reported revised national trend estimates for the painted stork (Mycteria leucocephala) in India. The numerical update was released on 6 May 2026 as part of the project’s updated eBird-based dataset.

The long-term numerical estimate was +24.7% and clearly supported a long-term increase. The current annual estimate was −1.5% per year and clearly supported a recent decline. The species page still displays the carried-over 2023 categories Stable for the long-term trend and Decline for the current annual trend; these labels were not recalculated from the 2025 numerical estimates.

The species’ modelled distribution range in India was estimated at 1,525,243 km². State of India’s Birds lists the painted stork as a resident wetland specialist, non-endemic to India, and retains it in the Low conservation-priority category.

The interim release updated numerical range and trend estimates for 942 previously assessed 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 – 2025 interim update (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: Painted Stork (Mycteria leucocephala), India.National page displaying the 2025 numerical update: long-term trend +24.72% (+7.17 to +43.83), current annual trend −1.51% (−2.42 to −0.59), distribution range 1,525,243 km² (1,524,733–1,525,753), retained categories Stable and Decline, resident wetland specialization, non-endemicity and Low conservation priority.

Image: Charles J. Sharp — painted stork (Mycteria leucocephala) catching a fish in Yala National Park, Sri Lanka, 26 February 2022; representative species image for the national India trend update, cropped to 16:9 from the original. Source: Wikimedia Commons. · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source

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