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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.

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Selborne in West Africa

08 Feb 2018

Signals received yesterday show that Selborne had indeed been busy winging his way to West Africa - all the way to the Ivory Coast!

He covered around 2115km (1315 miles) between 29 January (his last signal in Gabon) and 7 February. He is very close to the border with Guinea and is in the Guinea Highlands area, a densely forested mountainous plateau extending from central Guinea through northern Sierra Leone and Liberia to western Ivory Coast. He is currently just east of the area in Guinea in which he spent a few days in last year before then venturing further to the forests in the south of Guinea. 

Last year he embarked on his desert crossing towards the end of March, having spent time in and around the border of Guinea and Ivory Coast, feeding up and gaining reserves for the mammoth task ahead of him. He is the first of our tagged Cuckoos to move into West Africa this year and may be the first to embark on his desert crossing - though it doesn't always work out this way. We'll have to wait and see!  

Cuckoos on the move north

02 Feb 2018

Two more Cuckoos have begun their journeys northwards from their wintering locations. From Angola, Larry has flown 675km (420 miles) north east to Central Congo.He is now to the north-east of Okoyo. This is similar to what he has done in the previous two years, before moving into Cameroon and then on to west Africa. In the first year he then made his desert crossing from Nigeria, but in the second year that we tracked him he went much further west - crossing the desert from Guinea! What will he do this year?

Selborne has also headed north and is now in northern Gabon, close to the coast, and the Reserva Natural del Estuario del Muniborder, a Wetland of International Importance. He is just south of the border with Equatorial Guinea, and has travelled 350km (218 miles) from his previous location.

Small movement from Selborne

03 Jan 2018
Selborne has made a small movement north within Gabon of about 95km (60 miles) to an area he visited last year, just south of Waka National Park. Last year he moved north again towards the end of January and was in Ghana by January 31 so it might not be too long before we see some big northward movements from him and our other Cuckoos, into west Africa. 

Selborne is the most southerly Cuckoo

19 Oct 2017
From Nigeria, Selborne has headed 1450km (900 miles)  to Gabon, across the Gulf of Guinea - possibly stopping for a brief time on the island of Bioko- and then over Equatorial Guinea. Signals received yesterday show he was in the south of Gabon, close to the Monts Birougou National Park. This new location makes him the most southerly of all the tagged Cuckoos currently. 

Selborne in Nigeria

20 Sep 2017
Selborne has traveled 480km (almost 300 miles) south east  from his last postition in Benin and is now in Nigeria.  This is almost exactly on schedule as per 2016. Last year he arrived in Nigeria on 23 September, remaining here until early October when he moved on to Equatorial Guinea briefly and then Gabon. 

Selborne in Benin

31 Aug 2017

Selborne has continued eastwards and is now in Benin, 250km (155 miles) further on from his last location in Burkina Faso. He is currently in Pendjari National Park (named for the Pendjari River), in north western Benin, which adjoins the Arli National Park in Burkina Faso. Pendjari National Park is home to elephants, West African lions, hippopotamuses, buffalo, antelopes and is also famous for its rich birdlife.

Selborne moves east

24 Aug 2017
Selborne moved to Burkina Faso at the end of July but a recent signal on 21 Aug shows a further eastwards movement of 370km (230 miles).  He is north of Tenkodogo and to the east of the Nakambe Forest. 

Selborne crosses desert

26 Jul 2017
Selborne was south of the Sierra Morena Mountains by the early hours of the morning of 22 July.  He stayed in the area around Jaén until around 10am and the next signal we received was two days later when he was in Algeria, over 700km (435 miles) further south. A series of locations throughout the 24 and into the morning of 25 show him steadily making his desert crossing of 1590km (990 miles). The last location on 25 shows him in southern Mauritania, close to the border with Mali but a further signal today shows he had reached a location just north of Segou, in southern Mali, and completed his desert crossing.  

Selborne moves further south

28 Jun 2017

On the 24th June, Selborne was picked up heading south from his previous tracked location in the Basque region of Northern Spain. He is currently in a wooded valley south of Arevalo, Central Spain. This is 287km (178 miles) south west of Bilbao, and 1,528km (950 miles) south of his summer location in the New Forest, Hampshire.

Selborne moving south

22 Jun 2017
A signal on 21 June shows Selborne heading south, out at sea just off the coast near Bordeaux. Further signals received today show that he continued onwards to the Basque Region in northern Spain. He is currently just 40km (25 miles) south-east of Bilbao. 

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