British cuckoos’ Sahara spring migration

This video says about itself:

Aug 23, 2011

The British Trust for Ornithology are using small 5g satellite tags to track the movements of five Cuckoos from breeding grounds in East Anglia to their winter quarters in Africa.

From Wildlife Extra:

BTO cuckoo update – The birds are preparing to cross the Sahara

Birds gathering in West Africa in preparation for crossing the Sahara

March 2013. This is just the second year that BTO have been able to follow tagged British Cuckoos on their spring migration back to the UK.

Chris is the only bird followed in both years so BTO are keen to see how similar his route and timing is to last year’s journey. They are also interested to see whether Cuckoos tagged in Scotland and Wales, where populations are faring better, will do anything different to Cuckoos tagged in England, where the population decline is greatest. All five Cuckoos tagged in year one were caught in England.

Let’s hope for better weather than last year to aid their safe return.

Get the latest update from the BTO site here.

See also here.

The special plight of Trans-Saharan migratory birds: here.

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