Updates from our Cuckoos

We hadn’t received any signals from Wilfrid since March 20, when he was still in south-east Guinea. Any concerns that we may have had for his wellbeing and whereabouts were joyously dashed yesterday when it became clear that he’d made significant progress since his last check-in.

At some point in the last 11 days he headed north in earnest, clearing the Sahara and arriving in the Extremadura region in central Spain! Currently just north of Guadalupe, he has covered at least 3,500 km (2,174 miles) since leaving Guinea and in excess of 7,000 km (4,350 miles) since departing his wintering grounds in Angola.

Of all our tagged Cuckoos, Wilfrid was the one who wintered the furthest south this year and he is now by far the most northerly of our birds!

Having spent the last few months deep in the forests of north-west Angola (furthest south of all our tagged Cuckoos), Wilfrid is now clearly feeling the urge to head back north.

He has made a massive leap, covering multiple African countries, passing through Gabon and western Cameroon before arriving in Nigeria a few days ago.

From here, he has continued his journey, sweeping past a further four countries until arriving at his current location in south-eastern Guinea. He has already covered approximately 3,700 km (2,300 miles) since leaving his wintering quarters in Angola.

Of all our tagged Cuckoos, Wilfrid is the bird who has gone furthest south at this time, and he is currently in north-west Angola, close to the mouth of the mighty Congo River.

He has travelled in excess of 9,000 km (5,592 miles) since leaving his Suffolk breeding grounds in July!

After fuelling up and resting for a while in Senegal, Wilfrid moved eastwards, passing through Mali and into Burkina Faso.

In the past few days he has continued on into southern Niger, and our latest signal shows him currently on the border with north-west Nigeria. He is just to the north of the Gagere River, approximately 100 km (62 miles) from the city of Maradi.     

Wilfrid is slowly making his way toward the Guinea border.

He has spent the past couple of days in the wooded savannah and arid forests close to the Niokolo-Koba National Park, a World Heritage Site and home to Lions, Chimpanzees, Hippos and around 330 bird species.

Our last update from Wilfrid, around a week ago, saw him still lingering in Portugal.

However, soon after this he set off across the Atlantic, bypassing the Canary Islands and the Moroccan coast, and making landfall at Dakhla, in the Western Sahara region.  

From here, he continued through Senegal, and our latest signal shows that he is now following the River Gambia and is just 60km (37 miles) from the Guinea border. Since leaving Portugal Wilfrid has flown more than 2,900 km (1,800 miles).  

After a few days feeding up around the Spanish town of Tordesillas, Wilfrid headed in a south-westerly direction on the evening of 19 July.

In just three days he covered a distance of around 520 km (323 miles), passing Salamanca and Badajoz en route. Now in Portugal, he arrived in a fairly remote region just south-west of the Guadiana Valley Natural Park at 5.23am today (22 July).  

Wilfrid has made good progress over the last few days, taking a 280 km (173 miles) route into Spain that bypassed a mountain crossing over the Pyrenees by cutting across open water from the coast of south-west France, to Bilbao.

From here he carried on a further 290 km (180 miles) and is currently in an area around the town of Tordesillas by the Douro River, in the province of Valladolid, Castile and León.  

After a couple of days around the Troyes area, Wilfrid flew approximately 500 km (310 miles) south toward Bordeaux, where he is currently in an area of mixed woodland and farmland just south of the Dordogne River.

Wilfred, tagged at Worlingham Marshes in Suffolk on 3 June 2024, has now left the UK and is heading determinedly south.

His route has taken him on a 165 km (102 miles) flight across open water, from the Suffolk coast to Dunkirk. From here he has carried on, covering a further 340 km (311 miles) to the outskirts of Troyes, a town in the Grand Est region.