We haven't received signals from Livingstones's tag since March and do not know whether he failed to return to the UK this year or whether his tag has stopped working. Everything was well according to the last signal received but it is unlikely that we will receive any further information about his journey now so he is being moved to inactive. 

We suspected Livingstone might rest up near Lake Volta to recover from his  journey but instead he continued 790km (490 miles) west fairly quickly to make it to Ivory Coast by 17 March.  Since the 12 March he has flown over 2500km (1,600 miles) over 8 days.  He is now the second most westerly Cuckoo, taking into account Hennah who is not shown on the map. 

At 00.27am on 15 March, Livingstone's tag transmitted from Cameroon. Over the next 18 hours he went on to fly over Nigeria, Benin and Togo to reach Ghana by 18.00pm on the same day. This mammoth trip is roughly 1450km (915 miles) long which means he was probably travelling at an average speed of just under 50mph!

He probably started off from his previous position in Central African Republic earlier that night, several hours before the first location in Cameroon, which makes the total flight about 1750km in about 22 hours. The last bit (from western Nigeria onwards) was done in the daytime, which is very unusual when Cuckoos aren't crossing the desert.

He is now north of Lake Volta, where he will likely spend some time feeding up and recovering from this incredible journey. 

In the last few days Chris has moved to the northern edge of the rainforest, having left his location in Congo and travelled 630km (390 miles). He has flown across the entire breadth of the forest spanning Congo and Central African Republic, at which point it is slightly narrower than to either the east and west. 

He is now in Central African Republic where Emsworthy, Livingstone and David are currently. Livingstone has also only moved to this area recently, travelling 590km (370 miles) north-east from Gabon. We now have five Cuckoos on the edge of the forest getting ready for the next stage of their migration to West Africa, where two of our Cuckoos already are. 

Livingstone has disappeared off the map but we received low quality signals from his tag on 31 January just a few days ago. Hopefully further signals soon will confirm whether he remains in the area or has been feeding up in preparation for a bigger movement. 

Livingstone had been in Congo but by 1 January 2015 he had made the journey to Gabon, travelling over 400km (275 miles), moving from the southern edge of the rainforest to the north.    

Since arriving in the rainforest Livingstone has moved south and is now on the southern edge of the rainforest. He is now amongst the most southerly of all our tagged Cuckoos.

Signals received on 22 September show that Livingstone was moving south and was in Central African Republic. He continued moving throughout the night and into the 23 September to reach the southern most tip of Cameroon where the Northwest Congolian Lowland Forest meets areas of the Congolian Swamp Forest, 820km (510 miles) from his previous location in Chad. By the 25 September he had covered a further 475km (290 miles) and was in central Congo.

Six of the tracked cuckoos (Peter, Dudley, Emsworthy, David, Livingstone and Stanley) are already within the Congo rainforest block. The first of these to arrive was Stanley on 16 September, the earliest of the tracked cuckoos ever to arrive there by 12 days! He was followed by Emsworthy on 19 and Livingstone and Dudley on 23. Previous to this year, the earliest Cuckoo had been Chris, who arrived there on 25 September in 2012.

Since then, David arrived on 24 and Peter on 28 September 2014. David was five and four days earlier than in 2012 and 2013 respectively whilst Livingstone was 13 days earlier than last year. It is very interesting to note that all four of the cuckoos who beat the previous earliest arrival date came from northern Cameroon and the adjacent part of Chad, a region that has received over 50mm less rainfall than usual over the past month and more than 100mm less over the past three months.

With most cuckoos now in the Sahel region, we're entering a fairly quiet period in the annual cycle of the tagged cuckoos with less movement than during the migration season.

Birds who completed their desert crossing will spend time in the Sahel recovering their body condition, and some may stay quite a long time. In previous years, cuckoos have stayed in this area for as much as several months, while others spend a shorter amount of time before moving south into the humid zone forests.

The eastern Sahel in Chad and south Sudan has received plenty of rain recently, and thus conditions are likely good for cuckoos. Northern Cameroon was slightly drier than average in August, and so cuckoos such as Derek, Dudley, Stanley, and Emsworthy may be moving on if foraging conditions aren't suitable.

Livingstone arrived in Africa on time this year, in fact a few days earlier than last year when he arrived on 31 July. This time he transmitted from Libya on 27 July before heading south through Niger and then heading east into Chad, in a very similar fashion to last year. 

We are still following twenty-two birds. Currently two cuckoos are in France – Walpole and unnamed cuckoo 134957.

Five birds are in and around the Po Valley in northern Italy – BB, Chris, Stanley, Waller and Livingstone.

Six birds are in Spain – Two of these are big movers this week. After finally leaving the UK, Derek hasn’t hung around. After a brief stop in central-western France, he is now in central-northern Spain, just south of Tolbanos de Abajo. It is Maji that has provided the biggest surprise though. He seems to be taking a tour of the European mountain ranges. Having spent a time in the Austrian Alps, he is now in the central Pyrenees!

David is still in Montenegro and Ash is still in Croatia; both of these birds could make the move to Africa any day now.

We now have seven birds in Africa, six of them south of the Sahara. Emsworthy is the latest to arrive here and he is currently just south of Lake Chad, in an area that Chris also favours. Three other Cuckoos – Peter, Hennah and Dudley – are also close to Lake Chad.

BB has left Germany and flown over Austria to reach Italy and is close to Venice.  He joins East Anglian Cuckoos Stanley and Chris, and fellow Scottish Cuckos Livingstone and Waller, all of whom are in different areas of northern Italy.

From France, via Corsica, Ash appears to now be in Italy. He joins Hennah, who had also been in France and perched in the Pyrenees close to the France/Spain border but who also recently changed direction and headed to Italy to take this more easterly route. Whortle, Peter, Waller, and Livingstone are all also currently in Italy. 

With three un-named birds left we are letting you choose what to name one of our Sherwood Cuckoos!  Anyone who sponsors a Cuckoo before the end of June will be entered in to a draw. We’ll then pick one entry at random and will contact the winner who can then suggest a suitable name*. Find out how you could name a Cuckoo. 

Emsworthy has travelled over the border from France to join Whortle, Livingstone and Peter in Italy. Livingstone and Peter are in the Po Valley, an area that the project has shown to be important to many of our Cuckoos,  while Whortle and Emsworthy are currently close to the valley edge. 

Emsworthy's move this year, from France along and into Italy, looks remarkably similiar to Whortle's movement last year, just before he suprised us by retreating back to France and then down through Spain to Africa.  This year Whortle has headed straight to Italy and not stopped in France as far as we can tell. Will he head through Spain as last year or make the flight to Africa directly from Italy? Which route will fellow Devon Cuckoo Emsworthy take? 

By the early hours of 3 May Livingstone had made it to Brittany, France. Approximately 30 hours later and he was flying over Wales, leaving land close to Colwyn Bay and cutting across the Irish Sea and travelling north to the Isle of Lismore. A further 50 miles travelling northwards and he had returned to his tagging grounds, in the smaller lochs south of Locah Carron. 

Both Waller and Livingstone returned to Scotland from western France but took surprisingly different routes to return, with Livingstone sticking to Wales and the west while Waller headed east to Berwickshire and then cut back across to western Scotland. We are delighted to welcome back two more Cuckoos! 

By the 26 April Livingstone had left Algeria and made it to Spain and was in the region of Zaragoza. From here, he then travelled 200km (130 miles) north-west and was south of Soria by 30 April.

Around lunch time on 16 April Livingstone left Ivory Coast and began his long journey north. On the evening of the 16 April he stopped for a couple of hours in the southern Sahara before continuing on northward. By 5pm on the 19 April he successfully completed the desert crossing and was in Algeria just south of Beni Rached, 3,052 km (1,896 miles) north-west of his position in Ivory Coast. He is now well positioned for the crossing of the Mediterranean, something he could do any day now!

Yesterday at around midday we received signals which showed that Livingstone was in the south of Mauritania, having flown over Mali. Further signals have meant that we have been able to follow his progress over the desert and the latest signals, received this morning, show that he was north of the Akchar Desert. Despite having travelled over 1500km (950 miles) from Ivory Coast he still has a long way to go, having taken a very westerly route to reach Mauritania, he is probably only about half way. 

Livingstone had moved further north within Cameroon but the last signal received from this more northerly location was on 12 March. After this we received several low quality signals that revealed he was on the move. His new location popped up on the map yesterday, 19 March, when a good quality signal was finally received, and revealed that he was in Ivory Coast, close to border with Guinea. From the previous signals we can see that he has been in the area since around the 16 March, making him the fourth Cuckoo to move into West Africa. He is now just 20km (12 miles) north-east of Derek. 

Livingstone has made a move north. As of 21 February, he was 276km (171 miles) north of his mid-winter site in Gabon and is now in south Cameroon.

Livingstone is still in the area of Gabon in which he arrived on 30 December.  We last heard from him on 11 January.

Since the 23 December, Livingstone has moved 400km (250 miles), transmitting from the Woleu-Ntem region of Gabon on 30 December. He is now in a location further west than any of the other tagged Cuckoos. 

Livingstone has returned to the area he was in during October and early November, leaving eastern Congo and returning to the Cuvette-Ouest region to the west. 

Over a series of days, Livingstone has travelled 415km (260 miles) north-east, leaving his position in the Teke Plateau and heading to  northern Congo. Signals received today show that he is close to the border with the Central African Republic in the Noubale-Ndoki National Park.   

Of the Cuckoos tagged in Scotland this year, Livingstone is still on the edge of the Téké Plateau, whilst Patch is in an area of closed canopy forest with seasonally flooded grassland west of Lac Mai in DRC. Waller is in the swamp forests about 120km (75 miles) ESE of Chris and Derek. All three of these birds could be in their final mid-winter locations, although we might well see Waller at least move further south towards the gallery forest / savannah mosaics.

By 1 November, Livingstone had moved north-west from his position in Congo to eastern Gabon, just inside it's border with Congo. 

Livingstone has not travelled any further and remains in the same location. He is just slightly further north, at a higher latitude, than David, Patch and Tor. 

A week after Livingstone moved south, so too did Waller and Chris, overtaking him in the race south. However from his location in the Central African Republic, Livingstone headed directly south and by 6 October he was catching up and was in Congo, in a location near to the Odzala-Kokoua National Park.

A further poor quality signal today shows that he has travelled even further south and is at a similar longitude to David, our most southerly Cuckoo, who made a big movement south on 7 October to the Democratic Republic of Congo. This new movement will mean that he is one of only a number of tagged Cuckoos which have flown that far south, including David in 2012 and 2013 and Kasper in 2011. 

By the 15 September, Livingstone had moved south to the Mayo-Kebbi Ouest Region of Chad. Heading in a south but slightly westerly direction, by the morning of the 17 September, Livingstone had crossed into the north-east corner of Cameroon.  A further 280km (175 miles) south and he was in Mambere-Kadai region of Central African Republic, just east of the country's border with Cameroon, by 19 September. This is around 130km (80 miles) north-west of Berberati Airport. This latest movement makes him the furthest south of any of the tagged Cuckoos, although, perhaps not for long! 

Sometime after 29 July, Livingstone left his location near the river Po in Italy. Poor quality signals placed him on the coast of Africa by 31 July, close to Ichkeul National Park in Tunisia. A further series of poor quality locations tracked his journey through the Sahara Desert and by the evening of 3 August he was in south Niger. A few hours after this he was close to the south-west shores of Lake Chad in Nigeria before heading east, skirting around the lake and across the extreme north of Cameroon, and in to Chari-Baguirmi region of Chad. He is currently 44 miles east of the border with Cameroon.  

Signals on 5 July revealed that Livingstone had travelled to Italy, joining Chris and BB. Further signals received on 10 July show he is still in the same area, close to the river Po on the border of the Provinces of Pavia and Alessandria.   The area which both Whortle and David have travelled to, and then backtracked from, is about 70km (45 miles) south of Livingstone’s current position. 

On 25 June Livingstone was close to the south coast of England but signals received late on Friday evening (28 June) revealed he had left the country and was in central France.  Locations placed him in the valley of around 8km (5 miles) north of Roanne, in the Loire department. He appears to be in a wooded area close to the Loire River which runs through Roanne. He is the sixth tagged Cuckoo to leave the UK and the second Scottish Cuckoo, following behind BB. Signals received yesterday (1 July) confirm he is still in the same area. 

Unlike the Cuckoos tagged in Scotland last year, which flew straight across the sea to Europe, Livingstone, has moved south, heading down the west of the country and then taking a south-easterly direction from the Irish Sea to cut across England to the south coast. Transmissions just before lunch on 25 June show he was just north of Waterlooville in Hampshire but a later signal shows he has crossed over the border to West Sussex and is now between South Harting and Rogate. Interestingly, Karma, another of the Cuckoos tagged in the same area of Scotland this year, has chosen another tactic, instead moving eastwards to Aberdeen. Will he fly to Europe across the sea or skirt down the east coast in a similar fashion? 

Livingstone was caught in the evening of 21 May at Loch Iain Oig, NE of Kyle of Lochalsh and NW of Balmacara. He was the fourth of our tagged cuckoos to be caught that day, a relief to the team as he completed our sample before the weather was due to close in the next day. Since then he has generally remained in the area 2-4km (1.25-2.5 miles) to the NNE of where he was caught. He took quite a while to arrive at the catching location, from that direction, so we may have lured him in from some distance away!