After a flight of 840 km (522 miles) from southern France, AJ arrived in north Africa on Wednesday 14 July. At 9am on Wednesday he was 15 km south-south east of the town of Tenes in Algeria. A subsequent update received at around 6am this morning (Friday 16 July) showed him almost 600 km south so he may be attempting to cross the Sahara.
Updates from our Cuckoos
Read the latest updates from our Cuckoos on their epic migration between the UK and tropical Africa, or track their movements in real-time on our Cuckoo migration map.
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AJ makes it to Africa
16 Jul 2021
AJ arrives in south of France
13 Jul 2021
Having departed the UK on 12 June, AJ has made steady progress south, first to Normandy, where he spent a few weeks. In the last few days he has flown 533 km (331 miles) south to his current location 32 km (20 miles) east of Mont-de-Marsan in the south of France.
Introducing AJ
18 Jun 2021
AJ was caught at the edge of RSPB Budby Common on the evening of 27th May. The team’s spirits were dampened a little when there was no response to the Cuckoo sound tape initially but after a while, a male and a female Cuckoo were heard approaching the nets. Soon after they checked the nets and found both birds in them! As night was approaching, they worked quickly to tag the male bird before darkness fell. As the team sat in the car under the forest canopy working under artificial light, a Tawny Owl called nearby, causing the Cuckoo to flinch markedly – a good reminder of the dangers these birds face throughout their lives. Since being tagged AJ has made the journey south across the Channel into northern France where he is approximately 80 km (50 miles) west of Paris.
Meet the 2021 Cuckoos
17 Jun 2021
After being unable to tag any Cuckoos in 2020 due to COVID-19 restrictions, we are delighted to be able to introduce eleven new Cuckoos this year!
The tagging teams faced some very early starts as usual to tag the Cuckoos, but they were rewarded with birds who were interested enough in the female lure to be caught, weighed and tagged (with the exception of a location near Loch Katrine where there were a number of female Cuckoos around, making our lure less convincing!).
Some of these newly-tagged birds have already begun their migration south, with one in France, one in the Netherlands and one of the Scottish birds is already down in Essex.
Keep an eye on the individual birds' blogs for updates on their progress.
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