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Republic of Tajikistan

Brown Accentor Prunella fulvescens ©Machiel Valkenburg Website

Tajikistan is a landlocked country, the smallest in Central Asia.  It is bordered by Afghanistan to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and China to the east. It is separated from Pakistan by Afghanistan’s Wakhan Corridor. It has a population of approximately 10.6 million people living in an area of just over 143,000 km2 (over 55,000 square miles). Dushanbe is the capital and most populous city with over one and a half million people.

Tajikistan lies mostly between latitudes 36° and 41° N, and longitudes 67° and 75° E. It is covered by mountains of the Pamir range, and more than half of the country is over 3,000 metres (9,800 feet) above sea level. There are several peaks over 20,000 feet including the tallest, Ismoil Somoni peak at 24,590 feet. The areas of lower land are in the north (part of the Fergana Valley), and in the southern Kofarnihon and Vakhsh river valleys, which form the Amu Darya. Dushanbe is located on the southern slopes above the Kofarnihon valley. The Amu Darya and Panj rivers mark the border with Afghanistan, and the glaciers in Tajikistan’s mountains are the source of runoff for the Aral Sea. There are over 900 rivers in Tajikistan longer than 10 kilometres.

Most of Tajikistan’s population belongs to the Tajik ethnic group, who share culture and history with the Iranian peoples and speak the Persian language (officially referred to as Tajiki in Tajikistan).

Tajik Mountains – Ibrahimjon CC BY 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons

After independence from USSR, Tajikistan suffered from a devastating civil war (1992-1997). Since the end of the war, newly-established political stability and foreign aid have allowed the country’s economy to grow. Trade in commodities such as cotton and aluminium wire has contributed greatly to this steady improvement, but lack of natural resources (besides hydroelectric power and its strategic location) has hampered its economic recovery.

Birding Tajikistan

Tajikistan contains five terrestrial ecoregions: Alai-Western Tian Shan steppe, Gissaro-Alai open woodlands, Pamir alpine desert and tundra, Badghyz and Karabil semi-desert, and Paropamisus xeric woodlands.

The agricultural landscape is largely dedicated to livestock farming (dominated by sheep and goats), orchards, arable and bee-keeping. The northwest of the country is temperate at altitude and otherwise subtropical in nature, with mixed deciduous woodland across most of the countryside and coniferous woodland above 1500 m.

With just 429 species of birds ever recorded, many of them very rare or accidental species are limited, so only around 330 are generally possible for the year lister. However, around 23 are globally threatened. Birding is very limited and the population is poor and mostly reliant on money sent home by workers abroad.

One of Tajikistan’s many rivers – Шухрат Саъдиев CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Very few places have abundant birdlife, but what there is seems to be widespread where physical conditions allow. Bare mountainsides are less well-endowed that wooded ones or valleys with rivers. Few areas of water have muddy margins so waders are scarce, although those that favour such conditions such as common sandpiper are common. Some visitors report White Wagtail and Spotted Flycatcher as very well distributed, especially in orchard areas. The only woodpecker species is White-backed Woodpecker.

Contributors
Number of Species

  • Number of bird species: 429

    (As at January 2025)

    National Bird: Golden Eagle Aquila chrysaetos

Checklist

  • Avibase

    PDF Checklist
    This checklist includes all bird species found in Tajikistan , based on the best information available at this time. It is based on a wide variety of sources that I collated over many years. I am pleased to offer these checklists as a service to birdwatchers. If you find any error, please do not hesitate to report them.

  • Wikipedia

    Annotated List
    This is a list of the bird species recorded in Tajikistan. The avifauna of Tajikistan include a total of 424 species.

  • eBird

    PDF Checklist
    This checklist is generated with data from eBird (ebird.org), a global database of bird sightings from birders like you. If you enjoy this checklist, please consider contributing your sightings to eBird. It is 100% free to take part, and your observations will help support birders, researchers, and conservationists worldwide.
Useful Reading

  • Birds of Central Asia

    | (Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan & Afghanistan) | By Raffael Ayé, Manuel Schweizer & Tobias Roth | Christopher Helm | 2012 | Paperback | 336 pages, 141 plates with colour illustrations; 14 colour photos, 5 b/w illustrations, 3 colour maps, colour distribution maps | ISBN: 9780713670387 Buy this book from NHBS.com
Organisations

  • Tajikistan Birders Club

    Website
    We are ordinary people of different backgrounds, age groups, genders and levels of knowledge, united by an interest in birds.
Reserves

Abbreviations Key

  • NP Pamirt

    InformationSatellite View
    It stretches about 2,6 mill.ha which is 18% of the total size of Tajikistan. It includes parts of the Pamir Mountains .In 2001 its area was increased to 2.6 million hectares by the Order of the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan. Species known to live in the national park include the brown bear, snow leopard, wolves, markhor, Marco Polo sheep, brown-headed gulls and bar-headed geese.

  • NR Zorkul Nature Reserve

    InformationSatellite View
    The core of the reserve is the 3,900 ha (9,600 acres) of Zorkul lake at an altitude of 4,125 m (13,533 ft). The maximum depth of the lake is 6 m (20 ft). Its surface is covered by vegetation. Bar-headed geese and other waterfowl breed on islands in the lake. Although land use in the reserve is prohibited, its surrounds are used as pasture.

  • NR & IBA Zorkul

    InformationSatellite View
    As well as for bar-headed geese, with up to 125 breeding pairs using the site, the reserve was classified as an IBA because it supports significant numbers of the populations of several other bird species, either as residents, or as overwintering, breeding or passage migrants. These include Tibetan snowcocks, Himalayan snowcocks, ruddy shelducks, saker falcons, Himalayan vultures, lesser sand plovers, brown-headed gulls, yellow-billed choughs, Hume's larks, white-winged redstarts, white-winged snowfinches, rufous-streaked accentors, brown accentors, black-headed mountain-finches, Caucasian great rosefinches and red-fronted rosefinches.

  • NR Dashti-Jum Nature Reserve

    InformationSatellite View
    The reserve lies 80 km south-east of the city of Kulob, at an altitude of 1,300–2,500 m above sea level, in the southern part of the Hazrati Shoh mountain range. It extends southwards to the river Panj which forms the border with Afghanistan. It contains three small mountain rivers and their valleys, which have a diverse vegetation of woody thickets and herbage. The floodplain of the Panj attracts large numbers of waterbirds.

  • NR Tigrovaya Balka

    InformationSatellite View
    Tigrovaya Balka Nature Reserve is in Tajikistan close to the Afghan border where the Vakhsh River and the Panj River join to form the Amu Darya. The reserve stretches over 40 km from the southwest to the northeast. Birds include include red-crested pochard, pygmy cormorants, saker falcons, common coots, common cranes, pale-backed pigeons, pallid scops-owls, Egyptian nightjars, white-winged woodpeckers, brown-necked ravens, great tits, desert larks, streaked scrub-warblers, Sykes's warblers, Asian desert warblers, saxaul sparrows and desert finches.

  • SeNR Ramit

    InformationSatellite View
    It consist of 16139 ha mountains and forests. The snow leopard is found in the reserve. Bukharan markhors (Capra falconeri heptneri), endangered goat-antelopes, are kept in enclosures and released in the wild.
Sightings, News & Forums
Guides & Tour Operators

  • BirdTour Asdia

    Tour Operator
    Tajikistan and Pakistan Where the Himalaya and Karakorum collide

  • Greeentours

    Tour Operator
    What a fantastic way to start a holiday – five million Iris bucharica stretching for miles in dense drifts of yellow blooms along the Karatag Valley. Eight fantastic Juno Irises and eight Tulip species are the cream of an amazing array of bulbous species that cover the spectacular mountains and steppes of Tajikistan and nearby parts of Uzbekistan.

  • Indy Guides

    Tour Operator
    Tajikistan Mammals And Birds Tour

  • Mikstures Birdwatching

    Tour Operator
    Miksture take pleasure in presenting our travel programmes. These tours have been specially designed to show you the very best of Central Asia: Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, combined with high standards of services.

  • NatureTrek

    Tour Operator
    A 14-day holiday in search of the wildlife of Tajikistan, including a quest for the rare Markhor and Marco Polo Argali, and an interesting birdlife.

  • Rubythroat Birding Tours

    Tour Operator
    A Large-billed Reed Warbler adventure A birding expedition into the Pamir Mountains
Trip Reports

  • 2018 [08 August] - Frans De Schamphelaere

    PDF Report
    Tajikistan. It had been on our minds for such a long time...

  • 2021 [04 April] - Fabio Olmos

    PDF Report
    It is fair to say Tajikistan is not among the best-known birding destination. This should be corrected, as this small Central Asian republic has much to offer. From the Tien Shan and Pamir mountains to the western deserts, Tajikistan doesn’t lack impressive vistas and interesting habitats worth visiting.

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