The arrival of the cuckoo announces the start of the summer season, but have you ever wondered where they spend their winters? This has been a topic of fascination for bird enthusiasts and ornithologists for hundreds of years. Plenty of data is available regarding these birds during their breeding phase in Europe, however, very little is known about where they reside during the winter, outside of the fact that they reside in Africa.
In a groundbreaking endeavour, for the first time, cuckoos have been tracked on their migratory journey between Europe and Africa. Cuach KP is one among three birds that had a tracking device attached to them in May 2023 at the Killarney National Park, led by National Parks and Wildlife Service in collaboration with the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO).
Upon arriving back in Ireland on a Monday, it was discovered that Cuach KP had made a staggering 9,000-kilometre round trip from Congo, where he wintered. An impressive part of his flight was a formidable sea journey from the Bay of Biscay off Spain back to Ireland. Speaking on this, National Parks and Wildlife Services conservation ranger Sam Bayley stated this sort of uninterrupted sea journey was incredibly unforeseen, as such occurrences haven’t previously been documented in European cuckoos.
The Minister of State for Nature, Malcolm Noonan, pointed out that the arrival of Cuach KP back in Ireland was a great “success story”. “Endeavours such as this greatly expands our understanding about precious birds like the cuckoo, and how we should protect them”, he added.
Satellite tagging data indicates that the other cuckoos from the project are also making their way back to Ireland. Cuach Torc is currently near Brittany, while Cuach Cores was the last of the trio to set off. The most recent updates suggest that Cores has departed Algeria and is rapidly progressing towards Ireland.
Cuckoos, known in Gaelic as Cuach, are migratory birds that spend the summer in Ireland. Adult birds remain here from April until early July, after spending the winter in Africa. Cuckoos are one-of-a-kind in Ireland due to their habit of laying their eggs in the nests of other birds and not participating in the upbringing of their offspring.
In Ireland, the cuckoo bird has witnessed a decline in its breeding distribution by 27 per cent, observed between the first national census, Bird Atlas (1968-1972), and the latest one (2007-2011). This has raised alarm about the shrinking numbers of the hen harrier in Northern Ireland, which saw a significant drop of 26%.