Rangkul Valley Important Bird Area

[2] The Rangkul Valley is an inter-mountain trough in the eastern Pamir Mountains 60 km north-east of the district centre of Murghab.

The central part of the IBA, at an altitude of 3600–4000 m, contains two lakes, Rangkul and Shorkul, which form an endorheic system and are connected by the Izyuk channel.

Both lakes freeze in winter and contain no fish, but support numerous invertebrates, including amphipods, beetles and mosquito larvae.

Apart from the lakes and their littoral zones the valley is predominantly alpine semi-desert with scattered shrubs and is subject to strong winds.

[2] These include Tibetan snowcocks, Himalayan snowcocks, bar-headed geese ruddy shelducks, saker falcons, Himalayan vultures, lesser sand plovers, brown-headed gulls, Tibetan sandgrouse, yellow-billed choughs, Hume's larks, wallcreepers, white-winged redstarts, white-winged snowfinches, rufous-streaked accentors, brown accentors, black-headed mountain finches, Caucasian great rosefinches and red-fronted rosefinches.