After he’d reached Cameroon in early March, we hadn’t received any signals from Ashok’s tag until this morning. 

It would appear that rather than heading west to join the other Cuckoos, he took off north across the central Sahara at some point in the last week, arriving in north-eastern Algeria. Since then he powered purposefully on, crossed the Mediterranean and arrived in the Almería region of south-east Spain yesterday evening!  

Ashok is not only the first of our tagged Cuckoos to arrive in Europe this spring but this is also the earliest ever date that one of our satellite tagged birds has done so.     

We last received a signal from Irish Cuckoo Cores’ tag in late autumn, after he’d successfully crossed the Sahara on 27 October and he was in southern Chad. Despite regular checks over the winter, we’ve heard nothing, and it looked as though he’d either failed to get into the Congo, or that we were possibly having problems with his tag as sensor data indicated possible battery charging issues. 

Then, out of the blue, we received a signal on 19 March! And he was in Ghana. Presumably, he’d spent the last four months in the Congolese forests as usual, and now that he was on his way his tag was functioning again and providing us with his whereabouts. He has spent the last few days around the western fringes of the massive Lake Volta in eastern Ghana. 

Oddly enough this Cuckoo’s tag did something similar last year. Cores went ‘offline’ in Central African Republic in November 2024 and sprang back into life in early April 2025 in Algeria!

Since our last update from Frederic in early March, he has continued to move at a relatively relaxed pace, passing up through western Central African Republic and across Cameroon. He is currently close to the Nigerian border, in the southern foothills of the vast Mambilla Plateau. 

Five of our tagged Cuckoos are temporarily settled in Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast). 

We now know, as a direct result of this tagging project, that this is a key staging area for this species at this time of year. Their arrival in this region of West Africa coincides with a period of annual rainfall, which ensures that there is plenty of invertebrate food for the birds to feed up on before making their epic flights north. 

Joe and Jim are little more than 20 km (12 miles) from each other, while Cleeve is just 50 km (31 miles) to their north. Arthur is the furthest north, and Sayaan the furthest east, having recently crossed the border from Ghana. Given that these five tagged birds are in such a relatively small area right now, it is quite mind-boggling to think how many other (untagged) Cuckoos there must be in that region currently! 

It is likely, looking at previous years’ data, that these birds will remain here into April, before setting off through Mali and then crossing the expansive Sahara Desert. 

When we last reported his whereabouts nine days ago, we could see that Sayaan was still heading slowly through Cameroon. 

Since then, he has flown a distance of around 1,860 km (1,155 miles) west, taking him through southern Nigeria, Benin and Togo. He has crossed much of Ghana and is now close to the border with Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), placing him less than 190 km (118 miles) from Cuckoos Cleeve and Joe! Sayaan is the fifth of our tagged Cuckoos to reach this vital staging area so far this spring.      

Since arriving in the Congo back in November, Cleeve’s signal has been intermittent, as we would expect. We last heard from him in mid-Feb when he was still firmly in his wintering area. Now, after a period of ‘radio silence,’ he has suddenly reappeared, having made a considerable move west. 

Covering over 2,000 km (1,242 miles), as the Cuckoo flies, Cleeve arrived in southern Ghana on Saturday, and by this morning had flown a further 390 km (242 miles) into Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast). He is now close to his Cuckoo cohorts Joe and Jim.

These birds’ arrival in this area is timed to coincide with seasonal rains which create a spike in invertebrate food availability. They will now remain in this region, fattening up and getting into shape before heading off on the next part of their remarkable journey!

In the last few days, Joe has moved approximately 310 km (193 miles) from Ghana into east-central Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast). Remarkably, he is less than 30 km (19 miles) away from Cuckoo Jim! 

The close proximity of these birds helps to demonstrate just how important these traditional staging areas are on the Cuckoo’s migratory routes, and how the birds’ movements are timed to coincide with seasonal climatic events. Any significant changes to these patterns could make the birds incredibly vulnerable, at these crucial parts of their life cycle. 

Back in early December all seemed good with Ashok, and we were receiving steady signals from his tag as he explored the forests of central Gabon. Then, things went quiet. We often lose the signals when the Cuckoos are deep in the forests, so this in itself was not so unusual. What was unusual, however, was the signal that we received in early February which suggested he’d moved over 2,700 km (1,678 miles) east into Ethiopia!    

Now, we know enough about Cuckoos to know that this was an anomalous signal and we were certain that Ashok was actually still in the Gabon jungle. But we hadn’t received any further signals… Then, late yesterday, Ashok’s signal sprang back into life and we can now see that he has moved 680 km (423 miles) north of his wintering site in Gabon and made his way into Cameroon!        

When we last posted Arthur’s whereabouts just over a week ago, he had moved into Liberia in West Africa, over 3,000 km (1,864 miles) from where he’d spent the winter months. In the last few days, he has flown a further 300 km (186 miles) north, skirting the border with Guinea and moving back into Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast). 

His next move could see him heading into southern Mali before making his big Saharan crossing. 

After a few months in Gabon, Jim has sprung into life in recent days and made his way approximately 2,200 km (1,367 miles) west into northeastern Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), passing through Cameroon, Nigeria, Benin, Togo, and Ghana on the way! 

His latest signal shows that he is in Comoé National Park, one of the largest protected areas in West Africa and designated a Biosphere Reserve and UNESCO World Heritage Site.