Harry

Named after Harry Green MBE – a lifelong BTO supporter and Vice President of Worcestershire Wildlife Trust, who sponsored this tag.

Status:: Inactive
Tagged:: Thursday, May 20, 2021 - 10:00
Tagging Location:: Ripple, Worcestershire, England
Sex:: Male
Age when found:: Adult
Satellite Tag No.:: 179110
Wing Length (mm):: 224

Harry's journey from 20 May 2021 to 29 August 2021

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Harry's position on

Harry's movements

27 Sep 2021 - The end of the road for Harry

As those of who have been following our work for a while will know, we discovered that Cuckoos breeding in the UK migrate to Africa via two main routes. Birds either migrate southwest via Spain and Morocco (the ‘western route’) or southeast via Italy or the Balkans (the ‘eastern route’) before converging in the Congo basin of central Africa. Our studies have shown that birds on the western route are significantly more likely to die before completing the Sahara crossing (even though their route was 12% shorter to this point). Very sadly, the western route has now claimed two more casualties, Harry and Clive. Cuckoo Harry had reached western Mauritania by 6 August but with no real movement since, we have to presume he has perished. These two birds have probably now made their last contributions to our growing knowledge of Cuckoos and the amazing migrations they undertake.

22 Aug 2021 - No further movements from Harry

We have only received a few, low quality transmissions from Harry's tag over the last 10 days, all suggesting that he is still in central Mauritania.

06 Aug 2021 - Harry is crossing the Sahara

New updates arrived last night showing that Harry has flown 2,000 km (1,242 miles) south from Spain, and is currently crossing the Sahara in Mauritania. Last night he passed over the "Eye of Africa" (Richat Structure), an amazing geological structure which is so big it can be seen from space. By the time the last update was sent at 23:05 last night he had reached the southern edge of the Akchar desert region of the Sahara and had approximately 500km to fly before completing his desert crossing.

03 Aug 2021 - Harry reaches southern Spain

It's been a couple of weeks since we last heard from Harry. New updates received over the weekend show that on Sunday morning he was 22 Km (14 miles) north of Marbella.