Project tracks cuckoo's 9,000km journey from Africa's rainforests home to Kerry
Three elusive cuckoos were tagged in Killarney National Park back in May 2023. Photo: Valerie O’Sullivan
One of the first cuckoos to be tagged as part of a tracking project has landed home at Killarney National Park after a winter spent in the rainforests of the Congo Basin in Central Africa.
Cuach KP is the first of three Irish cuckoos to successfully make the 9,000km journey home for the summer months.
He was tagged alongside two other Irish cuckoos in Killarney National Park back in May 2023.
On his arrival into Ireland on Monday, KP made a short stop in Fermoy in Co Cork before making his way back to Derrycunihy in Killarney National Park.
While the cuckoo has been well-studied during the breeding season, very little is known about the routes they take once they head off on migration, or where in Africa they spent the winter months.
But the Cuckoo Tracking Project, an initiative by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), was set up last year to better understand their migration patterns.
The birds were given names and fitted with satellite tags so that their movements could be tracked.
Over the course of Cuach KP's extraordinary 9,000km journey to and from the Kingdom, he covered two continents and several countries, as he travelled as far as the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
According to NPWS conservation ranger, Sam Bayley, KP’s journey ended with “an epic sea crossing” all the way from northern Spain direct to Ireland across the Bay of Biscay.
“Big sea crossings haven’t been recorded in cuckoos in Europe before, so that’s a really interesting twist,” Ms Bayley said.
Mr Bayley, who set up the project in conjunction with the British Trust for Ornithology, says that satellite tagging gives us a “clear picture of the cuckoos journey for the first time, to Africa and back to Ireland.”
The latest reports from the satellite tagging system also indicate that the other two cuckoos from the project are also on their way.
Cuach Torc is currently in the vicinity of Brittany, and Cuach Cores, who was the last of the three birds to leave, left Algeria on Wednesday, and is already making quick progress towards Ireland.
Minister of State for Nature, Malcolm Noonan, said: “The return of Cuach KP is a real success story for this project. Projects like this really help us to learn more about precious birds such as the cuckoo and how we can all keep them safe.”
Meanwhile, Divisional Manager at Killarney National Park, Eamonn Meskell, said everyone is now “hoping that the two other birds tagged as part of this project will follow and join him here over the coming days.”
We’re working with @_BTO to track the migration patterns of Irish Cuckoos. One of them - Cuach KP has just landed home at Killarney National Park - to the spot where he was ringed last year! Here’s our Conservation Ranger @SamBayley2 with the update.. pic.twitter.com/vx7LHbDacU
— National Parks and Wildlife Service (@NPWSIreland) May 2, 2024
Cuckoos, or Cuach in Irish, are a summer migrant to Ireland. Adult birds are resident here from April to early July, having spent the winter in Africa.
Cuckoos are known to lay their eggs in other birds’ nests and have no involvement in raising their young.
Across Ireland, the cuckoo has seen a 27% reduction in breeding distribution between the first national census, Bird Atlas (1968-1972), and the most recent Bird Atlas (2007-2011).
