Ladakh the Land of High Passes; Factors that make Ladakh a unique birding destination

Ladakh, which translates to “Land of the High Passes”, is a plateau sandwiched between the Karakoram range to the north and the Himalayas to the south, with the Ladakh and Zanskar ranges running through it. Several factors contribute to making Ladakh a unique birding destination, a “melting pot of bird movements” as Otto Pfister says in his book Birds and Mammals of Ladakh. For one, it is situated on the border between the Palearctic and the Indo-Malayan zoogeographic zones and has bird species from both the zones.

Since it forms the westernmost tip of the Tibetan plateau, quite a few Tibetan species can also be found in Ladakh. And, a lot of migrants stop in Ladakh as it is the last stopover, or the first, during the annual spring and autumn movements of birds across the Himalayas.

The dry summer months of July and August also attract summer visitors that breed here. The most notable of them is the black-necked crane, Ladakh being the only breeding ground in India for the species, the crane happens to be the State bird of Ladakh.