Species Use Database

Black-headed Bunting
Emberiza melanocephala

Used for Food and feed and Ceremony, religious, and ritual expression in Nepal

A. Species

Scientific name: Emberiza melanocephala

Common name(s): Black-headed Bunting

Global IUCN Red List Threat Status: Least Concern


B. Location of use

Geographic location(s):

  • Nepal

Country/Region:


C. Scale of assessment

Scale of assessment: Regional/Continental/Multi-country level

Name/Details of location: six districts of Madhesh Province


D. Timescale of use

Start Year: 2018

End Year: 2019


E. Information about the use

How is the wild species sourced?: Wild species sourced from its natural habitat

Type of use: Extractive

Practice of use: Hunting and/or Trapping of live terrestrial and aerial animals

Lethal or non-lethal: Lethal

Does this use involve take/extraction of: The whole entire organism

Purpose(s) of end use: Food and feed and Ceremony, religious, and ritual expression

Motivation of use: Income generation from trade (individual/household/community) and Largescale commercial exploitation for trade

Is this use legal or illegal?: Illegal under national law


F. Information about the Users

Which stakeholder(s) does the record primarily focus on?: Local people


G. Information about the sustainability of use

Is there evidence that the use is having an impact on the target species?: Wild species sourced from its natural habitat

Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an ecological perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered unsustainable

Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: decline in farmland species

Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an economic perspective been recorded?: not recorded

Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from a social perspective been recorded?: not recorded

Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from a human health perspective been recorded?: not recorded

Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an animal health/welfare perspective been recorded?: not recorded


Recommendations provided in the record to maintain or enhance the sustainability of the use of the target species

To discourage trapping and trade of birds, we suggests that 1) the government and conservation agencies should provide alternate means of income to the people who rely significantly on the Bagedi business, particularly the trappers and the middlemen; 2) bird identification and awareness initiatives on the status, ecology and ecosystem provided by birds to local trappers, as well as to school children, the community, and consumers through newspaper/magazine programs. Additionally, Bagedi can also be promoted and linked with cultural (e.g., initiating the friends of Bagedi), conservation (e.g., ecological significance), and commercial values (e.g., ecotourism) in order to boost popularity among the general public to discourage trapping and eating, similar to the initiatives taken for the most trapped Amur Falcon (Falco amurensis) in Northeast India (see Aiyadurai and Banerjee, 2020); 3) provide information regarding the penalties for trapping, trading, and consuming wild birds in Nepal; 4) initiate programs to change the attitudes and behaviors of consumers, such as shifting to farmed species (e.g., quail species); 5) detail survey on Madhesh and other provinces of Nepal to estimate the national scale of Bagedi trapping and its impact on bird populations.


Record source

Information about the record source: own_res_data_knowledge

Date of publication/issue/production: 2023-01-01T00:00:00+0000

Source Reference(s):

Katuwal, H. B., Sharma, H. P., Thakur, R. K., Rokka, P., Mandal, D. N., Baral, H. S., & Quan, R.-C. (2023). Illegal trapping and local trade of farmland birds in Madhesh Province, Nepal. Global Ecology and Conservation, 42, e02391. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2023.e02391

Date of record entry: 2024-07-10


Records from the same source material: