Updates from our Cuckoos

A journey of 768 km (478 miles) south east from Cameroon has taken PJ into the north western part of the Republic of the Congo. He is in the forest to the east of the city of Kelle. His final destination in previous years has been northern Angola, this will require him to fly a further 900 km south. Victor II is also in Congo, approximately 85 km south of PJ. 

Victor II has flown 461km (287 miles) S-SE from his last location in Cameroon. He is now 35 km (20 miles) east of the planned new capital city of Ciudad de la Paz in eastern Equatorial Guinea. He is in thick forest close to the Piedra Nzas natural monument, a protected area designated in 2000.  It will be interesting to see whether he remains here or moves on before settling for the winter. 

New updates received yesterday evening show that PJ has flown 681 km (423 miles) south east from his last location in Nigeria over the border into Cameroon. He knows this part of Cameroon well having made several stops here both on his southwards and northwards migrations in previous years. He may next visit Republic of Congo on his way to Angola. 

Over the last few days PJ has flown 340 km (211 miles) south from northern Nigeria where he has been since 13 August, to his new location in the western part of Kaduna state. He is just east of the man-made Shiroro Reservoir which was created in 1984 by damming the Kaduna River. He usually stops south of Abuja which is another 120 km south east of his current location. The next country on his list is likely to be Cameroon. 

New updates received at around 6am this morning show that Victor II has flown 1,061 Km (660 miles) south-south east from Nigeria to northern Cameroon. He is now close to the Nta Ali Forest Reserve.

Over the last few days JAC has flown 866 Km (538 miles) south east from Cameroon to the Republic of Congo. He is now deep within the Congo rainforest, close to the Likouala River, a tributary of the Congo. 

AJ has flown 200 Km (124 miles) south east within the Democratic Republic of the Congo and is now on the western edge of the Salongo National Park (North). This very isolated area which is only accessible by boat is Africa's largest tropical rainforest reserve. Here AJ could be crossing paths with endangered species like the Congo Peacock, Pygmy Chimpanzee or the Bush Elephant. 

New updates from JAC's tag received between 05:25 and 09:17 yesterday morning (Tuesday 5 October) show that JAC has flown 745 Km (463 miles) south east from Nigeria to Cameroon. He is now just east of Bafoussam, a city in the highlands of western Cameroon.

New updates received beteen 18:00 and 21:30 last night (Sunday 26 September) show that Calypso has flown 470 Km (292 miles) south east and is close to the Gashaka-Gumpti National park in eastern Nigeria, near the border with Cameroon. Cuckoos AJ and Ellis are approximately 1,200 Km (755 miles) south east of him in the Congo Basin. 

As those of who have been following our work for a while will know, we discovered that Cuckoos breeding in the UK migrate to Africa via two main routes. Birds either migrate southwest via Spain and Morocco (the ‘western route’) or southeast via Italy or the Balkans (the ‘eastern route’) before converging in the Congo basin of central Africa. Our studies have shown that birds on the western route are significantly more likely to die before completing the Sahara crossing (even though their route was 12% shorter to this point). Very sadly, the western route has now claimed two more casualties, Harry and Clive. Clive pushed south from Morocco to Mauritania on 29 August. He then moved about 55km shortly after but the latest data shows Clive in the same place, suggesting that he has also died. These two birds have probably now made their last contributions to our growing knowledge of Cuckoos and the amazing migrations they undertake.