He is the first tagged cuckoo to survive five complete migrations with his tag still functioning. And you can follow his journey mile by mile.
After five years and a staggering 50,000 miles, Suffolk Cuckoo PJ has once again returned from Africa to his breeding grounds in the King’s Forest, Suffolk, the British Trust for Ornithology reports.
The bird, which has become kind of an online star, has completed its migratory journey between Africa and England for the fifth time since a satellite transmitter was attached to it in June 2016 at King’s Forest in Suffolk.
In this time span, the tiny animal flew over the Sahara Desert, the Atlas Mouintain of Morocco, and the French and Spanish Pyrenees ten times.
The trust also reports that the cuckoo was one year old when it was tagged and is turning six this summer. This means he is approaching the age record of tagged cuckoos in the UK, which is six years and eleven months.
The project was orginally launched to unravel what may have been behind the decline in the cuckoo population on the British Isles, where the number of cuckoos laying eggs has fallen by more than two-thirds (almost by three-quarters in England) over the past twenty-three years.
PJ will stay in England until early July before beginning his journey back to Africa once again. You can follow it all here.
Donate
Related Posts
The Tiny Bird That Builds the World’s Largest Nests: Meet the Sociable Weaver
Mozart and His Starling: The Bird That Sang His Music—And May Have Even Inspired It
Finally, a World Map That Gets It Right: The AuthaGraph Projection
The Gloster Canary: Rocking a ’60s Hairdo and Stealing Hearts
Birds as Keepers of Human History: The Curious Case of the Flute-Playing Lyrebird
Some Birds Bathe in Ants and the Possible Reasons Are Fascinating
Tabula Peutingeriana: The Most Extensive Surviving Map of the Roman Empire Is the Only One to Show Its Vast Road Network
This Is the Oldest Known Map of the World, Made in Babylon About 2,600 Years Ago
Wolves And Ravens Have a Special Bond: They Hunt Together and May Even Become Friends
Is the Secretary Bird Named So Because It Looks Like a Secretary?