Valentine left Burkina Faso on 16th November, flying 495 km (307 miles) south-east over the border into Ghana where he stayed for a week. On 23rd November he departed Ghana and flew 836 km (520 miles) east to Nigeria where he stopped for around a week near Benin City in southern Nigeria. The latest update shows that by 5:45 pm on Saturday evening (November 30) Valentine had flown a further 416 km (258 miles) south east to his current location in western Cameroon.
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 05 December 2019
View routes starting..
Cuckoo positions on
Latest updates
Valentine arrives in Cameroon
02 Dec 2019
Carlton II arrives at his wintering grounds
11 Nov 2019
Carlton II didn't stay long in Equatorial Guinea before covering the last 280 km (174 miles) and reaching his new location in central Gabon. He is now 17 km (10 miles) south of the small town of Booue and just south of the Equator. He is in exactly the same area as he spent the 2018/19 winter, arriving on November 7 and departing on February 3.
Carlton II in equatorial Africa
07 Nov 2019
True to last year's timings, Carlton II has moved onwards dring the first week of November. This year he has flown slightly further south, bypassing Cameroon, and settling on nearby Equatorial Guinea to feed up before he, presumably, presses on into Gabon andthe dense forest of the Congo Basin as last year. His most recent trip covered over 1035km (645 miles) and has taken him close to the town of Anisoc.
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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