Carlton II has started the next stage of his migration, leaving his last location in Mali and flying 1,434 km (891 miles) East to Nigeria, via a brief stop-off in Benin. Carlton II is now in the Dagida Game Reserve in western Nigeria. In 2018, Carlton II spent two and a half weeks in this game reserve from mid October to early November before pressing on through Cameroon to Gabon, where he spent the winter.
Cuckoo Tracking Project
Help us follow Cuckoos on migration and discover why they are in decline.
We’ve lost over half the number of Cuckoos in the UK over the last 20 years. Since 2011 we’ve been satellite-tracking Cuckoos to find out why. We’ve learned lots of vital information which could help us to understand our Cuckoos - such as how the different routes taken are linked to declines, and some of the pressures they face whilst on migration. But there is still more to discover. We now need to look more closely at how dependent they are on, and how much their migration is linked, to the drought-busting rains of the weather frontal system known as the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) as they move out of the Congo rainforest and begin to head back to the UK via West Africa. Follow our Cuckoos as they move to and from Africa.
This project wouldn't have been possible without the amazing support from funders and sponsors. Read more about the project and find out how you can get involved.
We have been able to share our expertise around tracking Cuckoos with other international studies, such as the Beijing Cuckoo Project.
Skill required
Cuckoo movements from 23 May 2019 to 14 October 2019
View routes starting..
Cuckoo positions on
Latest updates
Carlton II pushes East to Nigeria
30 Sep 2019
PJ set to move shortly?
25 Sep 2019
PJ has been in northern Nigeria since early August and, looking back at previous years data, could be on the move shortly to Cameroon. In the last couple of years he has arrived there in the first week of October, later making his way south to winter in Angola. Keep watching this space!
Tennyson arrives in Cameroon
18 Sep 2019
Over the last few days Norfolk Cuckoo Tenysson has flown 644 km (400 miles) south from Nigeria into Cameroon. He is the first of our tagged Cuckoos to make this next leg of the journey and he is now in far eastern Cameroon, close to the border with Central African Republic. It is the rainy season in this area now and the weather today will be between 68 and 83 F (20 to 28 C) with 76% humidity and thunderstorms bringing a 40% chance of rain. This is probably another stop-over point for Tennyson and we expect him to move further south over the coming days or weeks.
Project Lead
Email Contact:
cuckoos@bto.org
Project timeline, contributions & findings
Project timeline
- 5/11 - First round of five Cuckoos tagged, wintering sites in the Congo identified
- 3/12 - Different routes discovered on return journeys
- 2016 - First scientific paper published on on the routes of our Cuckoos
Contributions & findings
Support the project
You can help keep this important project going by either giving a donation, becoming a Cuckoo sponsor, or gifting a sponsorship to someone else. We greatly appreciate the support the project has received, allowing us to continue to monitor this endangered species.
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