Updates from our Cuckoos

Chris is still close to the Ubangi River the Congo rainforest.

Martin is still on the edge of the rainforest in southern Central African Republic.

Clement is still transmitting from the Lame Burra Game Reserve.

Having been in the Bayan Dutsin Forest reserve in northern Nigeria for more than two months and with his tag having increasing difficulty charging, we were beginning to have concerns for Kasper. Just as on several occasions with Cuckoos on stop-overs north of the Sahara, however, the problems with tag-charging preceded a sudden movement south. A new location received in the morning of Tuesday 18 October placed him in northern Gabon, about 1° north of the equator, east of Equatorial Guinea and about 50km west of the border with Congo. He has moved 1,360km SSE from his previous position in Nigeria.

Kasper’s current location places him in a remote area of unbroken, closed rainforest with numerous watercourses. He is now our third Cuckoo in the Congo rainforest, with Chris and Martin each about 575km to his east and north-east respectively. These are the three Cuckoos that entered Africa via the central Mediterranean flyway. It will be very interesting to see if Clement and Lyster – the two Cuckoos that took the western route into Africa – follow them….. 

On the morning of 13 October Chris was still close to the Ubangi River, northwest of Mbandaka in the Congo rainforest. At that time, he had spent three nights at this location – we had wondered whether he would move straight through the rainforest on his way to the savannahs to the south so this is extremely interesting evidence of him actually staying in and using this rainforest habitat. 

No change – Kasper remains in the same location and his tag is still not charging well. 

Lyster remains in the south-eastern corner of Burkina Faso, very close to the borders with Togo and Benin. He has been at this location since 9 October. 

On 13th October, Martin remained at the edge of the rainforest in southern Central African Republic.   

On Wednesday Clement remained close to the Yankari Game Reserve. Ulf Ottosson and colleagues from the AP Leventis Ornithological Institute in Jos, 130km to the south west, looked for Clement in the field on Wednesday. They managed to get to within 8km of his current location but then had to give up as access became very difficult due to the tall, dense, wet grass that grows under the trees in the savannah habitat at this time of year. 

The ornithological institute at Jos is funded by the Tasso Leventis Conservation Foundation, which also supports the BTO’s capacity building work in West Africa.

Transmissions received early on Tuesday 11 October placed Kasper still in the Bayan Dutsin Forest Reserve but the tag on his charge was very low.