Having spent the last week or so visiting the Llanymynech area, Daniel has flown the 29km (18 miles) west, back to his breeding grounds on the southern shore of Lake Vyrnwy. Perhaps he was struggling to find a good enough food supply and so returned to an area that he was familiar with and could be more confident would hold the food supply that he needs.
Cuckoo Tracking Project
What have the Cuckoos taught us?
When the Cuckoo Tracking Project began, we knew very little about what our breeding Cuckoos did once they left the UK for the winter months. Amost 100 tagged birds later, our new blog explores what we have learned and the questions we're still asking.
Help us follow Cuckoos on migration and discover why they are in decline.
The Cuckoo is currently Red Listed as a Bird of Conservation Concern in the UK, due to its population decline.
Since 2011 we’ve been satellite-tracking Cuckoos to find out why they are declining. 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 01 May 2022 to 28 June 2022
View routes starting..
Cuckoo positions on
Latest updates
Daniel is back at Lake Vyrnwy
27 Jun 2022
Charles reaches the south of France
27 Jun 2022
By early Saturday evening Charles had flown 357km (222 miles) south from his last location and had reached the town of Tourbes in the Occitanie region of southern France. Subsequent signals showed him pushing on south and the last update, received at 22:12 on Saturday night showed him nearing Riversaltes, just to the north of Perpignan. If he keeps going he could well overtake JD as our most southerly Cuckoo.
Ellis moves to Friesland
27 Jun 2022
After making landfall on the Dutch coast just south of Rotterdam, Ellis took to the skies again over the weekend, flying 204km (127 miles) north east to Friesland in the north of the Netherlands. He is now on some farmland just north of the city of Leeuwarden, an area that looks as if it could offer some very good feeding opportunities for a Cuckoo.
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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