We last heard from Bowie's tag when he was near the Algerian town of Hammam Righa on the Oued Djer River. On examining the data it looks like Bowie was struggling in the latter part of his northward desert crossing and spent at least six hours on the desert floor on the morning of 11 April. The temperature data recorded by his tag suggest he died on 13 April, soon after his arrival at the final location. Bowie has gien us useful information about his southward migration, wintering areas and northwards migration as far as north Africa, all of which helps extend our knowledge of Cuckoo migration. We are grateful to all of Bowie's sponsors and supporters.
Updates from our Cuckoos
Read the latest updates from our Cuckoos on their epic migration between the UK and tropical Africa, or track their movements in real-time on our Cuckoo migration map.
- If you enjoy these updates, please consider sponsoring a Cuckoo. Sponsors receive special updates about their chosen Cuckoo in the Cuckoo e-newsletter.
The end of the road for Bowie
08 May 2019
Bowie has crossed the desert
15 Apr 2019
Several poor quality locations from Bowies tag show that he has successfully crossed the desert and is in northern Algeria. He is south of the town of Hadjout in an area of cultivated hills and around 25km (15 miles) from the Mediterranean coast. We will have to wait for good quality locations for this to show on his map.
Bowie is on his way
11 Apr 2019
A series of locations received from Bowies's tag mid-morning on 11 April showed that he was in the Grand Erg Oriental Desert, central Algeria, and around three-quarters of the way across the Sahara. This will automatically update on his map overnight. He is 2,571km (1,598 miles) north and east of his last location in Ghana. We will have to wait until his tag powers up again, around mid morning on 13 April, to see if he has successfully crossed the desert. Currently the wind is fairly light and from the north-west in this part of the desert. We have three other Cuckoos that are currently crossing the desert and, along with Bowie, these birds are also heading north-east, possibly being drifted by the north-westerly winds. We will have to wait and see if they have corrected their direction of travel when we next hear from them to help confirm this.
Bowie returns to Ghana
29 Mar 2019
Since our last update Bowie has backtracked East, flying 411 Km (255 miles) from Ivory Coast over the border into Ghana. He is now 122 Km (75 miles) west of the city of Kumasi in south west Ghana.
Bowie moves again
18 Mar 2019
Over the weekend Bowie moved south and west within Ivory Coast. Having spent a couple of weeks in eastern Ivory Coast he is now close to the western border and Liberia. He has flown 231km (143 miles) to get to his current location, an area of palm plantations close to the village of Niapoyo.
Bowie moving west
04 Mar 2019
Bowie has left Ghana and is now in Ivory Coast, 545km (339 miles) from his last stopover location. It does look like he had a short stopover close to the western border of Ghana before crossing over into Ivory Coast. He is currently in forest on the outskirts of Ntopadrikro
Bowie is on his way
25 Feb 2019
During the last couple of days Bowie has undertaken a huge journey. On the evening of 23 February his tag began sending locations from Ghana, 1,400km (900 miles) from his stopover site in Gabon. He is currently between Lake Volta and the border with Togo. The fact that he didn’t do a stopover on the northern edge of the rainforest leads us to believe that he might have undertaken a sea crossing over the Gulf of Guinea. However, it is impossible to tell for sure as we received no locations from the tag over the sea.
Bowie heads north
20 Feb 2019
Bowie has been close to the Niara river for a month but by breakfast on 19 February he had moved 340km (212 miles) north and west. He is still in Gabon and is on the north western edge of the Waka National Park.
Bowie still in Congo
14 Feb 2019
Bowie is still to the south of the Niari River in southwest Congo. The last location we received from his tag was just before 9pm on 12 February and it showed a movement to the north of the patch of forest he has been settled in. This may well be the start of the second leg of his journey back and it will be interesting to see where he is when we next hear from his tag.
Bowie not moving much
07 Feb 2019
Since arriving in southwest Congo, Bowie has settled in an area to the south of the Niari River and to the east of the town of Makabara. We are receiving lots of locations from his tag that show he is moving around an area of dense forest and areas of more open forest. We last heard from him at 9.00am on February 6.
Share this page