“Having been listed as nationally extinct as recently as 2006, Little Bustard has made an outstanding recovery in Kyrgyzstan, with current estimates putting its nesting population as large as 1,900 individuals.

Ornithologists had previously considered the species lost in the country, with its status declared extinct in the Red Book of Kyrgyzstan in 2006. However, as reported by Ornithomedia, recent surveys have revealed that a breeding population in the Chuy and Talas valleys holds between 1,400 and 1,900 individuals.

The species’ decline began in the Soviet era, largely driven by agricultural intensification and habitat loss from the 1950s onward. By the 1970s, only a few residual groups remained in non-cultivated steppe areas near the Kazakh border, particularly in Chuy and Talas.”

From BirdGuides.