A NOTE ON AVIFAUNAL COMMUNITY OF KHUKH LAKE IMPORTANT BIRD AREA, EASTERN MONGOLIA.

Khukh Lake, an Important Bird Area (IBA) within the Mongol Daguur Ramsar Site, is the biggest saline lake in eastern Mongolia. Wetlands in eastern Mongolia play a key role by providing outstanding breeding and stopover sites for migratory waterbirds, in particular those of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. We surveyed bird community of Khukh Lake in three consecutive surveys (April-May, June- July and September, corresponding to northward migration, breeding and southward migration) in 2016. We counted and recorded varied number of individual waterbirds (26,021 birds) that belong to 49 species from five orders during these surveys. Of these, 88.6% of total counted waterbirds were Anseriformes, while 22 out of 49 species were Charadriiforms, with predominance of waders (17 species). According to this and previous studies, we highlight the crucial threats threatening avifauna at Khukh Lake. These included harvesting aquatic invertebrates, steppe fires, overgrazing and illegal fishing recorded at Khukh Lake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]