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Updated India Index Estimated a 7.3% Annual Increase for Puff-throated Babbler

Puff-throated Babbler perched in dense forest undergrowth
Conservation · Population & status

The 2025 interim update to State of India’s Birds, released on 6 May 2026, estimated a clear recent increase in the national abundance index for puff-throated babbler (Pellorneum ruficeps). The current annual trend was +7.3% per year.

The long-term estimate was less certain. It was +6.8%, but the uncertainty was broad, so the updated data did not establish a clear long-term increase or decline.

The estimated distribution range size in India was 680,060 km². State of India’s Birds treats the species as a resident associated with forest and plantation habitats.

The 2025 interim release updated numerical range and trend estimates for 942 species using about 48 million eBird observations available 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 from the 2023 report were retained, including the species’ Low conservation priority.

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.20036633

Image: Rushen / Thai National Parks — wild Puff-throated Babbler photographed at Sai Yok National Park, Kanchanaburi, Thailand, 12 October 2015; Wikimedia Commons; representative species image; cropped to 16:9; https://www.thainationalparks.com/sai-yok-national-park · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Source

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