The end of the road for PJ
09 Jun 2022We are very sad to report that the time has finally come to bid farewell to our old friend PJ, the longest lived of our satellite tagged Cuckoos to date. PJ was tagged in the King's Forest in Suffolk on Tuesday 7 June, 2016 when he was already a second year bird (i.e. hatched in 2015). He arrived back in the UK on 24th April this year but there have been no transmissions from his tag since 6th May when he was still at his breeding grounds in the King's Forest. Tag failures are rare in the UK, where the tags are not exposed to such harsh conditions as when the birds are on migration, so we must assume that PJ has reached the end of his life. He was at least seven years old when he arrived in the King’s Forest this spring, only one year short of the longevity record for a wild UK Cuckoo.
As well as being the first tagged Cuckoo to use both the Spanish and Italian routes to the wintering grounds in the Congo Basin, PJ completed six epic tracked migrations to Africa and back. This is the greatest number of migratory journeys of any tagged Cuckoo. When he returned to the UK in April this year he had over 60,000 miles under his wing.
Although PJ may be gone, his legacy - six years of location data - lives on, and his contribution to our understanding of Cuckoo migration will continue to inform BTO’s research. PJ built on the contributions of all the tagged Cuckoos before him, just as this year’s cohort will build on the knowledge we gained from PJ - a body of research which we hope will help reverse the sad decline seen in the UK Cuckoo population.
We are grateful for the data and the inspiration that PJ has given us and hope that you too have enjoyed following him. If you'd like to share any reflections on PJ's amazing story we would love to hear them.
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