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Yellow-crowned Woodpecker Index Showed Clear Declines on Both Time Scales in India

Yellow-crowned woodpecker in Kankrajhore, West Bengal, India
Conservation · Population & status

The 2025 interim update from State of India’s Birds reported revised national trend estimates for the yellow-crowned woodpecker (Leiopicus mahrattensis) in India. The updated numerical values were released on 6 May 2026 as part of a nationwide dataset based on citizen-science observations submitted to eBird.

The long-term trend was estimated at −70.8%, while the current annual trend was −2.6% per year. Both updated estimates clearly supported a decline. The species page still displays the carried-over 2023 categories Rapid Decline for the long-term trend and Decline for the current trend; these labels were not recalculated from the 2025 numerical estimates.

The species’ modelled distribution range in India was estimated at 1,110,981 km². State of India’s Birds describes the yellow-crowned woodpecker as a resident forest-and-plantation specialist and retains it in the High conservation-priority category.

The interim release updated numerical distribution-range, long-term-trend and current-trend values 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 the interim 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: Yellow-crowned Woodpecker (Leiopicus mahrattensis).National species page displaying the 2025 update: long-term trend −70.82% (−76.00 to −64.55), current annual trend −2.58% (−3.61 to −1.55), distribution range 1,110,981 km² (1,110,226–1,111,736), retained categories Rapid Decline and Decline, resident status, forest-and-plantation specialization and High conservation priority.

Image: Tisha Mukherjee / Wikimedia Commons — yellow-crowned woodpecker at Kankrajhore, West Bengal, India, 25 January 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

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