Chitwan, May 12 -- Once seen moving in large flocks across Nepal's plains, the yellow-breasted bunting earned its Nepali name "Bagale Bagedi" because of its abundance. Today, however, spotting the small migratory bird has become increasingly difficult as its population has crashed over the past decade, pushing it to the brink of extinction.

The bird, roughly sparrow-sized, has a distinctive yellow chest and brown wings streaked with white. Ornithologists in Nepal have now completed the country's first nationwide count of the species, and the results underline how sharply its numbers have declined.

According to Krishna Prasad Bhusal, a researcher specialising in the yellow-breasted bunting, a total of 2,530 birds were recorded across 20 ...