Kondara Gorge

The Kondara Gorge is the gorge of the Kondara River in the southern spurs of the Gissar Range, north of Dushanbe in the Varzob District, one of the Districts of Republican Subordination, in western Tajikistan.

The slopes of the gorge vary from gentle with a loose surface to steep and rocky.

The IBA includes the entire gorge from the eastern slope of the Ruidasht plateau to the Varzob.

[1] The 1,000 ha (2,500 acres) IBA was so classified because it supports significant numbers of the populations of various bird species, either as residents, or as overwintering, breeding or passage migrants.

These include Himalayan snowcocks, saker falcons, cinereous vultures, yellow-billed choughs, Hume's larks, sulphur-bellied warblers, wallcreepers, Himalayan rubythroats, white-winged redstarts, white-winged snowfinches, alpine accentors, rufous-streaked accentors, brown accentors, water pipits, fire-fronted serins, plain mountain finches, crimson-winged finches, red-mantled rosefinches, Caucasian great rosefinches and white-winged grosbeaks.

Alpine accentors breed in the IBA.