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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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The end of the road for Harry

27 Sep 2021

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. Cuckoo Harry had reached western Mauritania by 6 August but with no real movement since, we have to presume he has perished. These two birds have probably now made their last contributions to our growing knowledge of Cuckoos and the amazing migrations they undertake.

Ellis joins AJ in Democratic Republic of Congo

17 Sep 2021
A new update shows that Ellis has flown a further 564 Km (350 miles) south east from Central African Republic into Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). He is now south of the Equator and just over 100 Km (62 miles) east of Cuckoo AJ. They are both now deep within the Congo rainforest in north western DRC. 

Ellis pushes on towards the Congo Basin

16 Sep 2021
Over the last few days Ellis has followed AJ from Nigeria towards the Congo rainforest. By 08:14 on Tuesday morning, Ellis had flown 1000Km (621 miles) south east and had reached the south-western corner of Central African Republic. He was close to Dzanga-Sangha National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site established as a protected site in 1990 and covering 6,865Km2. Will he remain here or follow AJ into Congo or DRC? Stay tuned to find out...

AJ pushes further east

03 Sep 2021
Since the last update, AJ has flown 633 Km (393 miles) south east into the south eastern corner of Cameroon. He is now in an area of lowland rainforest, close to Boumba Bek National Park.

Victor II moves towards Nigeria

01 Sep 2021
Victor II has flown 155 Km (97 miles) south west within Niger, towards the border with Nigeria. He is now 150 Km north of PJ who is over the border in Nigeria.

Daniel makes it to Chad, via Niger and Nigeria

01 Sep 2021
Daniel left south eastern Mali on Friday and by Sunday evening he was in southern Niger. He didn't linger there long and by the early hours of this morning (1 September) he had flown on, clipping the north eastern corner of Nigeria and passing Lake Chad before arriving in Chad. He is now on the shores of Lake Fitri, approximately 260 Km (161 miles) east of the capital N'Djamena.   

AJ moves to Cameroon

01 Sep 2021
New updates received late yesterday afternoon show that AJ has flown 450 km (280 miles) south east from his last location close to Abuja, Nigeria, over the border into Cameroon. He is close to Lake Bamendjing in the West region of Cameroon.

Clive is crossing the Sahara

01 Sep 2021
Clive is clearly a cool character, preferring to arrive fashionably late to the party. While the other Cuckoos were well into their journeys south, he held on in northern Spain until 25 August. Once he got moving, he didn't hang about. At 08:19 on 25 August he was in central Portugal and by 11:00 he had made it as fas as southern Portugal. He didn't stop there though and by 09:58 the next morning (26 August) he had crossed to Africa, making landfall close to the port city of Safi in Morocco. He continued down the west coast of Africa that day and by 22:10 that evening he was 118 km further south. We next heard from Clive during the evening of 28 August (Saturday) by which time he was in the Akchar desert, approximately 150 km south west of the Richart Structure (the eye of Africa). A couple of recent further updates show him in the same location. This isn't a very hospitable place for a Cuckoo so hopefully we will see a new update from further south soon. He is currently 221Km north of Harry's location. 

No further movements from Harry

22 Aug 2021
We have only received a few, low quality transmissions from Harry's tag over the last 10 days, all suggesting that he is still in central Mauritania. 

Clive still in Spain

22 Aug 2021
An update from Clive's tag got us excited last week as it suggested he may be crossing the Sahara. However, that lower quality signal has since been followed with several high quality updates from northern Spain, showing that Clive hasn't yet made his move to Africa and remains close to Torrelavega in Spain.

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