The Mogoltau Massif Important Bird Area is a 268 km² tract of land in north-eastern

Sughd Province Sughd Province ( tg, Вилояти Суғд, Viloyati Sughd, Sogdia Region , fa, ولایت سغد) is one of the four administrative divisions and one of the three provinces ( tg, вилоятҳо, viloyatho , fa, ولایت) that make up ...

in northwestern

Tajikistan Tajikistan (, ; tg, Тоҷикистон, Tojikiston; russian: Таджикистан, Tadzhikistan), officially the Republic of Tajikistan ( tg, Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон, Jumhurii Tojikiston), is a landlocked country in Centr ...

. It has been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBA).

Description

The Mogoltau Massif is an isolated

massif In geology, a massif ( or ) is a section of a planet's crust that is demarcated by faults or flexures. In the movement of the crust, a massif tends to retain its internal structure while being displaced as a whole. The term also refers to a ...

some 40 km long and 15–25 km wide, with an area of 350 km², reaching an altitude of about 1600 m above sea level. The central high point is Muzbek peak with a height of 1624 m. The massif comprises a broad plateau of

rubble Rubble is broken stone, of irregular size, shape and texture; undressed especially as a filling-in. Rubble naturally found in the soil is known also as 'brash' (compare cornbrash)."Rubble" def. 2., "Brash n. 2. def. 1. ''Oxford English Dictionar ...

, boulders, pebbles, gravel and loess-like loam. It is incised by mainly dry riverbeds formed by ephemeral streams which flow during the spring rains. The area contains several small settlements and is surrounded, by cultivated land. As an ecological island it has a distinct avifauna which is different from the nearby

Turkestan Turkestan, also spelled Turkistan ( fa, ترکستان, Torkestân, lit=Land of the Turks), is a historical region in Central Asia corresponding to the regions of Transoxiana and Xinjiang. Overview Known as Turan to the Persians, western Turk ...

and Kuraminskiy Ranges.

Birds

The site was classified as an IBA because it supports significant numbers of the populations of various bird species, either as residents, or as breeding or passage migrants. These include

saker falcon The saker falcon (''Falco cherrug'') is a large species of falcon. This species breeds from central Europe eastwards across the Palearctic to Manchuria. It is mainly migratory except in the southernmost parts of its range, wintering in Ethiopia ...

cinereous vulture The cinereous vulture (''Aegypius monachus'') is a large raptor in the family Accipitridae and distributed through much of temperate Eurasia. It is also known as the black vulture, monk vulture and Eurasian black vulture. With a body length of , ...

European roller The European roller (''Coracias garrulus'') is the only member of the roller family of birds to breed in Europe. Its overall range extends into the Middle East, Central Asia and the Maghreb. The European roller is found in a wide variety of hab ...

s, Upcher's warblers, plain leaf-warblers, white-throated robins, Finsch's wheatears, variable wheatears, chestnut-breasted buntings and grey-necked buntings.

References

Important Bird Areas of Tajikistan Mountains of Tajikistan Sughd Region {{Tajikistan-geo-stub