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Updated India Estimate Put Indian Spot-billed Duck Long-term Trend at +44.1%

Indian Spot-billed Duck swimming in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
Conservation · Population & status

The 2025 interim update from State of India’s Birds reported revised national trend estimates for the Indian spot-billed duck (Anas poecilorhyncha) in India. The numerical update was released in May 2026 as part of a dataset based on citizen-science observations submitted to eBird.

The long-term numerical trend was estimated at +44.1% and clearly supported a long-term increase. The current annual numerical trend was +0.14% per year, but its uncertainty was too broad to establish a clear recent increase or decline. The 2025 interim release updated these numerical values but did not recalculate the earlier assessment categories.

The estimated Indian distribution range was 1,720,214 km². State of India’s Birds describes the Indian spot-billed duck as a resident wetland specialist and as non-endemic.

The interim release revised numerical distribution and trend estimates for 942 previously assessed Indian bird species using approximately 48 million eBird observations submitted through 31 May 2025. The trend values describe change in a reporting-based abundance index rather than direct counts of individual birds.

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: Indian Spot-billed Duck (Anas poecilorhyncha), Punjab.The page’s 2025 table displays the India-wide numerical values alongside Punjab estimates: India long-term trend +44.11% (+25.41 to +65.64), current annual trend +0.14% (−0.86 to +1.15), distribution range size 1,720,214 km² (1,719,768–1,720,660), resident status, wetland specialization and non-endemic status. The page-level assessment categories shown at the top refer to Punjab, not the national India values.

Image: Dr. Raju Kasambe / Wikimedia Commons — Indian spot-billed duck in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India, 10 February 2017; 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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