National Red List of Nepal’s Birds

©Hathan Chaudhary

This link directly take you to Species Account Download page.

This database is easily searchable by species, order, group or Red List status - for e.g. just type in the species name and the species file comes up straight away and can be very quickly downloaded or type group name e.g. “vulture” to search all of Nepal's vultures or “EN” to search all endangered species etc.

The National Red List of Nepal’s Birds is part of the ongoing National Red Lists of Nepal, a collaborative project between the Government of Nepal and several conservation organizations including Himalayan Nature and Zoological Society of London. First assessment of national Red Data List of birds was completed in January 2016. We are now seeking updates on an ongoing basis, with the aim of making this Red List up to date and keeping it up to date in the long term. Many ornithologists and citizen scientists have been finding new information on bird species throughout Nepal. We welcome records and other information from anyone who can send updates and revisions of species accounts. All contributions will be fully acknowledged within the relevant species accounts. Individual records or lists of records are welcomed - please include dates and localities for all records. Please email the information to nepalredlist@gmail.com

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is internationally recognized as the world’s most authoritative and objective inventory for classifying species’ extinction risk. However, as Red List conservation assessments are made at the global scale, it is not always possible to integrate the information into conservation planning and priority-setting at the national level, where most conservation policies are implemented. Therefore the need for national level species conservation risk assessment was identified and the promotion and production of which was discussed by members of several organizations.

The National Red List of Nepal’s birds defines the status, trends and threats to Nepal’s bird species in order to prioritize and catalyse action for bird conservation in Nepal. The completion of the National Red List of birds is integral to Nepal meeting its Convention on Biological Diversity commitments. It also helps to raise awareness about the status of Nepal’s avifauna and serve as a planning tool for the Government of Nepal to prioritize its conservation efforts at the national level.

Over 887 bird species have been recorded in Nepal, which is >8% of the world’s known birds. The compiling and assessing of the status of all these species represents a huge achievement for the National Red List Program.

Data on the birds’ records dating back to the 18th century have been collected and compiled to make the species accounts. A comprehensive bibliography of the birds’ record from Nepal is included.

Using the most up-to-date field information for Nepal bird species, the National Red List assessments have been carried out in accordance with the IUCN Regional Red List Categories and Criteria. Species assessed fall into one of the following categories: Least Concern, Near Threatened, Vulnerable, Endangered, Critically Endangered, Regionally Extinct, Extinct in the Wild, and Extinct.  If there is not enough information to assess the status of a species it is listed as Data Deficient.  Species that fall into threatened categories (Vulnerable, Endangered, and Critically Endangered) are identified by quantitative and qualitative criteria based on the rates of decline, population size, and extent of distribution as well as information on the impact of threat