Cuach Torc set off from the area around The Kunë-Vain-Talë Reserve on Friday night and continued south through Albania, and into Western Greece.

He is now in a wooded valley in a mountainous region approximately 25 km (15 miles) south of the city of Patras, on the Peloponnese peninsula.

Having left Dubrovnik, Torc made his way along the coast of Montenegro, and has now pitched down in north-east Albania.

He is currently on the fringes of the The Kunë-Vain-Talë-Patok-Fushëkuqe-Ishëm Nature Reserve. Formerly a hunting reserve, this protected area was designated as a nature reserve in 2010 and is recognised as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International.

After spending some time around Venice, Cuach Torc has headed eastwards across the Adriatic Sea before flying south along the Croatian coastline, travelling a distance of around 540 km (335 miles).

He is currently in an area along the border of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and just 10 km (6 miles) from the city of Dubrovnik.

Earlier this week Cuach Torc crossed the border into Italy from Switzerland.

He stopped for a short while just north of the UNESCO world heritage city of Verona, famously the home of Romeo and Juliet. From here Torc then moved a further 120 km (75 miles) to the coast just south of Venice.

In the next few days he could either continue down through Italy, or follow the route he did last year, via Bosnia and Herzegovina and on into Greece! 

Cuach Torc has powered some 483 km (300 miles) south-east through France in recent days and is now in Switzerland!

After a couple of days in and around the UNESCO Entlebuch Biosphere reserve at the foot of the Alps, close to Lucerne, he has now crossed over the high peaks and is heading towards the Italian border.

Since our last update, Cuach Torc has moved from the south of Bayeux and flown around 355 km (220 miles) to an area close to the River Seine, and the medieval town of Troyes, in the Champagne region.

By this time last year Torc had already travelled as far as northern Italy – when might he be saying ‘Au revoir’ to France and ‘Ciao’ to Italy this year?

Cuach Torc didn’t linger in Cornwall for long, and as we expected, soon headed for France, passing between Guernsey and Alderney on the way.

A flight of 325 km (200 miles) saw him heading into north-west Normandy, where he is currently exploring the sprawling agricultural region just to the south of Bayeux.

Having made a move to the County Waterford coast from Killarney National Park several days ago, Torc has now finally set off from Ireland, after a stay of 45 days.  

He flew a relatively short distance of 276 km (171 miles) to Cornwall, where he is currently just to the east of Falmouth. The second of our tagged birds to head south after the breeding season, his next move should see him making the 180 or kilometres (110 miles) to France in the coming days.

Cuach Torc is the first of our tagged Cuckoos to show signs of leaving his breeding grounds in Killarney National Park, having moved 110km (68 miles) east to the Cork / Waterford border. 

He appears to be primed, ready to make a sea crossing any day now! Having arrived back in Ireland on 2 May, Torc may well be on French soil by the weekend.

After several days in the Finistère area of Brittany, Cuach Torc has now left north-western France and has made his way to south-west Ireland.

His journey of approximately 550km (341 miles), saw him taking a direct route across the Celtic Sea, past the Isles of Scilly and Bishop’s Rock lighthouse, and into Killarney National Park, where he joins Cuckoo cohort KP!

Since our last update, just before the weekend, Cuch Torc has moved approximately 246km (152 miles) north.

He is now in a lush mountain region in the province of Cáceres, some 160km (100 miles) west of Madrid.

After a few days spent in the Casablanca region, Torc swiftly covered 595km, (370 miles) flying into Spain just west of the Straits of Gibraltar.

He is now in the same area as Cuckoos Trent and KP, in the mountains to the north-west of the Andalusian city of Córdoba.

Cuach Torc has carried on northbound through Morocco in the last couple of days and is currently in the lush, agricultural region around the city of Settat just 60km (37 miles) south of Casablanca.

Will Torc be the first of our Cuckoos to cross into Europe?

It had been 12 days since we last heard from Cuach Torc, when he was still in western Ghana.

That all changed yesterday, when his transmitter revealed that he is now some 2,364km (1,469 miles) to the north in Algeria, just 22km (13 miles) from the Moroccan border. This puts Cuach Torc firmly in the lead, and the first of our tagged Cuckoos to cross the Sahara.  

New updates received over the last few days show that Cuach Torc has left the Congo and flown 2,102km (1,306 miles) west to Ghana.

He is now in western Ghana, a few miles east of Bui National Park and the Bui Gorge Reservoir.

At the end of January Torc departed his wintering area in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and crossed into the Republic of the Congo.

He is now in dense rainforest approximately 50km (30 miles) south-west of the town of Pokola. 

A few days ago Cuach Torc flew 260km (160 miles) north-west from his previous location, towards the border between the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

He has since flown a further 135km (84 miles) east, deeper into DRC and is now close to the Busira River approximately 10 miles north-east of the town of Ingende.

Cuach Torc was the first of our tagged Cuckoos to reach the Congo wintering grounds this year, arriving on 20th September.

Since then has has remained in the same area, deep in the rainforest of Salonga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This is Africa's largest tropical rainforest reserve, at 3,600,000 hectares it is more than half the size of Wales. This area is very isolated and only accessible by boat.

Since crossing the Sahara, Cuach Torc has flown 117 km (72 miles) south and is now in the Sahel of Central Darfur.

He is currently on the western edge of the Marrah Mountains, approximately 73 km (45 miles) north-west of the town of Zalingei.   

Over the last few days Cuach Torc has made excellent progress south. By Saturday evening (29 July) he had departed Greece, crossed the Mediterranean and reached northern Libya.

He carried on south and by late on Monday (31 July) he was over the Sahara in eastern Chad.

By early this morning (3 August) he had reached the Marrah Mountains in Darfur, Sudan. He is currently 40 km (25 miles) west of the town of Kutum.

It'll be interesting to see whether Torc remains in the area or continues further south into the Sahel.

After about a week on the Adriatic coast close to Ravenna in northern Italy, Cuach Torc has flown 530 km (329 miles) south-east, across the Adriatic Sea.

Having initially made landfall on the border between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, he has since moved further inland into Bosnia and Herzegovina.

He is now nearby the town of Bileca in East Herzegovina, close to the border with Montenegro. Those who have been following the project for a few years will recall that one of our Welsh Cuckoos, David, was a regular visitor to Montenegro on his way south. 

Since our last update, Cuach Torc has flown 381 km (237 miles) east from his last location on the France/Italy border to his current location, close to the city of Ravenna in northern Italy.  

Cuach Torc has leap-frogged Cores to take up pole position as our most southerly Cuckoo.

By early yesterday evening, Torc had just crossed the border into Northern Italy and was close to the village of Olivetta san Michele in the Province of Imperia, in Liguria. 

Cuach Torc is in hot pursuit of Cuach Cores! Over the last few days Torc has flown over 500 miles from his last location near Clonmel in County Tipperary to his current location, which is close to the village of Herbault in the French department of Loir-et-Cher.

Torc is now approximately 100 km (62 miles) north-east of Cores. 

Cuach is the Irish name for Cuckoo, and Torc is the name of one of the mountains in Killarney National Park where he was tagged.

Torc was one of three handsome male Cuckoos caught by the tagging team on the morning of 17 May. 

Over the weekend Torc has flown 136 km (84 miles) north-east and is now close to the town of Clonmel in County Tipperary.