Now that BB has moved south, the five Cuckoos that we are still tracking all appear to be at, or close to, their final wintering locations. Although we can’t draw firm conclusions from such small numbers, the Scottish-tagged Cuckoos are wintering in the same area as the Cuckoos tagged in England (bar Chris) did last winter. The two Welsh Cuckoos are further to the east. This is really interesting but whether it reflects general differences in the wintering areas used by the different breeding populations will need to be confirmed by the results of further tracking work in the coming years.
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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Cuckoo wintering locations
06 Dec 2012
Lloyd a long way east
06 Dec 2012
Between Sunday 2 December and Tuesday 4 December, Lloyd moved 156km (97 miles) just south of east from the position he held close to the town of Lodja. This reinforces his position as the most easterly of the Cuckoos we are tracking and is much further east than any previous location we have had for a tracked cuckoo this far south – in fact, although he is still more than 500km (300 miles) from them he is closer to the countries Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania than he is to a location that has been occupied by any of the other tracked Cuckoos!
Although it is difficult to tell the exact habitat form the Google earth map, he appears to have moved from one area of secondary forest or farm bush to another, albeit one set in a landscape with less forest cover that is restricted mostly to along watercourses.
It is notable that the two Welsh-tagged Cuckoos are to the east of the areas occupied by the Cuckoos tagged in England and Scotland both this and last winter. The very small numbers of tagged birds involved make it difficult to draw firm conclusions but this may reflect slightly different wintering locations for these populations.
David heads towards the savannah?
06 Dec 2012
David has moved about 80km (50 miles) south-west from the location in southern DRC that he held since about 18 September. He is still in an area dominated by continuous rainforest but has now has crossed the Lukenie River and is only 50km (31 miles) from the Kasai River at Mangai, which marks the boundary between the rainforest and forest-savannah mosaics in this area. It will be interesting to see whether he stays here for long or continues further south into the area of habitat that is much more similar to where the other Cuckoos (save Chris) are now and where the Cuckoos last year also spent winter.
It is notable that the two Welsh-tagged Cuckoos are to the east of the areas occupied by the Cuckoos tagged in England and Scotland both this and last winter. The very small numbers of tagged birds involved make it difficult to draw firm conclusions but this may reflect slightly different wintering locations for these populations.
BB heads south to join the other Cuckoos
06 Dec 2012
Having been in the Chari-Baguirmi region of southern Chad since 17 September, where he was the most northerly of the Cuckoos we are still tracking, BB has now moved south to a similar latitude of the other four Cuckoos.
Locations from early evening on 4 December show that he had moved 1,310km (815 miles) south-west from his position two days previously and had become the second of the Cuckoos tagged in Scotland in 2012 to reach the Téké Plateau – the area of savanna and gallery forest in central Congo in which four of the Cuckoos tagged in East Anglia last year spent last winter. He was arriving from the north when locations were received so he will not necessarily settle in this exact area. The last transmission shows him 16km (10 miles) south-west of Okoyo – this area was visited briefly by Lyster last winter before he settled about 58km (36 miles) to the north. The nearest Cuckoo this year is Chance, who is on the edge of the Téké Plateau about 108km (67 miles) to the north-west.
Although the numbers are very small, assuming BB remains close by, the fact that the two remaining Cuckoos tagged in the south-west Highlands of Scotland are wintering in the area that harboured four of last year’s Cuckoos tagged in East Anglia possibly suggests high overlap in the wintering areas of these two populations.
Lloyd is the most southerly Cuckoo
28 Nov 2012
Further locations received yesterday morning confirmed that Lloyd continued onwards and was about 100km further south than his position on 24 November. He is now just a few km south of the town of Lodja. This new movement means that Lloyd is the furthest south of the tagged Cuckoos.
Lloyd in the Democratic Republic of Congo
27 Nov 2012
After a period of silence over the weekend, the first transmission received late in the evening of 24 November revealed Lloyd was just over 930km (577 miles) south of the last location received in the evening of 22 November. He then continued onwards, moving an additional 60km (40miles) SW during the rest of the night. He stopped in the Sankuro district, in the very centre of Democratic Republic of Congo(DRC). David, who is also in DRC to the west, is just slightly further south than Lloyd, but there isn’t much in it, and unconfirmed signals received at lunchtime today indicate that Lloyd has continued to fly south.
No change from Chris
23 Nov 2012
Chris is still settled close to the Ubangi river, transmissions from yesterday afternoon indicate. He has been in this area for nearly two months now.
David still the most southerly Cuckoo
23 Nov 2012
David is still in the same place within Democratic Republic of Congo that he has been in since 24 October and is still the most southerly of all the Cuckoos. We received transmissions from his tag yesterday.
Scottish Cuckoos sitting pretty
23 Nov 2012
BB’s tag transmitted this morning and shows that he is still in Chad. If you zoom in to his position on the map you can see he has not moved from his position on 18 September. He is 174 km (108 miles) northwest of Sarh, the third largest city in Chad and the capital of Moyen-Chari region.
We received signals from Chance’s tag yesterday and he remains in Gabon, although he is about 32km (20 miles) SW of his position on 12 November. Roy has still not reappeared, with the last date we received any information from his tag being the 4 October. We had hoped that we may have received some news by now.
Lloyd leaves CAR?
23 Nov 2012
We apologise for the silence and lack of updates over the last few weeks but our remaining Cuckoos have shown little activity. However, yesterday evening, a series of transmissions between 6pm and 8pm showed Lloyd beginning to head south. The last, unconfirmed, location showed him still in Central African Republic but 160km (100 miles) south of his previous postion. We will have to wait until the next 'on' period before we see where he is heading.
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