Natural History Wanderings

A research team from the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) has monitored the migration paths of  cuckoos, through satellite tracking. They discovered one bird that they would take the same route he had the previous year, surprised the researchers by flying 1000km east along the Algerian coast and migrating ten days earlier.

A possible reason or the bird’s change of course could be that it had found a desirable habitat after having travelled through the same region of Algeria earlier in 2012 during his journey from Africa to the UK.

Their research in tracking birds with satellite tracking has already documented how little time the birds spend in England and where in Africa they spend their winters. The researchers hope their work may lead to possible causes of the 50 % decline in the British Cuckoo population.

To learn more go to:  BBC Nature – Satellite-tracked cuckoo takes surprise route to Africa.