With no updates since April, we have to conclude that, very sadly, we've probably heard the last from Bluey. We had already lost him once, but against the odds we were able to recatch him on his breeding grounds and so, his has been a particularly exciting journey to follow. We can't be sure why we have lost contact with him this time, so who knows, perhaps we'll encounter him again in future. 

Bluey finally reoriented and has now headed north once more, travelling approximately 470km (292 miles) from southern Guinea into western Mali.

He is currently close to two vast open-pit gold mines near the town of Sadiola, in the Kayes region of Mali.

After making landfall in Mali last week, it seems Bluey had a change of heart and u-turned, flying a surprising 323km (200 miles) south, back into southern Guinea, close to the border with Sierra Leone.

Fingers crossed he reorientates himself soon, and sets off back on a northerly route toward the Sahara.  

Bluey has set off north from southern Guinea and crossed the border into Mali after a 597km (371 miles) journey.

He is now in the south west of the country, near the village of Tonbokoli, to the west of Bafing National Park. 

New updates received early this morning show that Bluey has flown 2,650km (1,647 miles) west from his last location in Cameroon to his new location in southern Guinea.

He is now 50km north-east of the city of Kissidougou and approximately 100km west of Cuckoo Trent. 

Over the last couple of weeks Bluey has departed his wintering grounds in Angola and flown 1,133km (704 miles) north to Cameroon.

He is now in the eastern part of the Dja Faunal Reserve, a UNESCO world heritage site inscribed for its incredible biodiversity and low disturbance.  

New updates received from Bluey's tag in the small hours of this morning (5 Dec) show that he continued south from his last location in Gabon, flying a further 1,000km (622 miles) to reach Angola.

He is now 50km (30 miles) due east of the town of N'zeto. Bluey is the second of our tagged Cuckoos to reach Angola this year, following Cuckoo Trent, who is 93km (58 miles) south of Bluey.  

After almost three weeks in Cameroon, Bluey has finally made another move, flying 436km (271 miles) south to Gabon.

At 3:30 on Saturday afternoon (2 Dec) he was in the forest a couple of miles due west of the city of Oyem in northern Gabon.  

Having spent three months in North-West Nigeria and lagging significantly behind the other Cuckoos, we were fearing the worst for Sussex Cuckoo Bluey. So we were thrilled when we received new updates over the last few days showing that he had flown 540km (335 miles) south-east from Nigeria to Cameroon.

Three months in one area is quite exceptional for our Cuckoos so the areas Bluey was using in Nigeria must have been very good for him. His departure occurred just after the end of the rains at that location, likely very significant given his occupation of gallery forest along seasonal watercourses.

Bluey is now in western Cameroon, 35km (21 miles) east of the city of Bafoussam.

Bluey has departed Mali and flown 1,025 km (637 miles) east, taking him across Burkina Faso and into Nigeria.

He has spent the last few days 63 km (40 miles) north-west of the town of Zuru in Kebbi State.

Since our last update Bluey has flown approximately 2,650 km (1,646 miles) on a journey that has taken him across the Sahara Desert, from Morocco, through Western Sahara and Mauritania to Mali.

He has spent the last couple of days in western Mali, close to the border with Senegal. He is approximately 16 km (10 miles) east of the town of Kéniéba, close to the Tabakoto gold mine.

It is the rainy season here and so hopefully Bluey will be finding plenty of invertebrate food to help him recover from his desert crossing. 

Updates received from Bluey's tag over the weekend show that he has flown 545 km (338 miles) south west from southern Spain, taking him across the Mediterranean and into Morocco.

By Saturday evening (15 July) he was close to the town of Midelt, on the high plains between the Middle Atlas and High Atlas Mountains. The latest signals show him 38 km (24 miles) east of Midelt but all of the recent signals have been of low quality so we'll need to await further transmissions to be more confident of his exact location.

Over the last few days Bluey has powered south over France and into Spain. By yesterday morning he had reached the countryside surrounding the small village of Ribatajadilla in the municipality of Sotorribas, in Cuenca province, Castilla–La Mancha, Spain.

Last year Bluey arrived in southern Spain on 8 July and by 11 July he was crossing the Sahara so if he follows a similar plan this year we can expect him to move on very soon. 

Over the last few days Bluey has flown 416 km (259 miles) south. He stopped briefly on Saturday night near Valence-en-Poitou in the Vienne department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, but soon pressed on. 

By midnight last night he had reached Castillon-la-Bataille in the Gironde department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in south-western France. 

New updates received from Bluey’s tag over the last 24 hours show that he has flown approximately 280 km (175 miles) south, crossing the English Channel and arriving in France.

He is now in a forest close to the town of La Loupe, in the Centre-Loire Valley region, approximately 78 km (48 miles) north-east of Le Mans. 

Last year Bluey arrived in France on 16 June, when he was 58 km (36 miles) north-north-east of Le Mans.  

Over the last couple of days, Bluey has left Knepp and flown approximately 15 km (9 miles) south-east towards Shoreham-by-Sea in West Sussex. After popping briefly into Buckingham Park, he has been exploring the area around the village of Upper Bleeding. It’ll be interesting to see whether this is the start of his migration or if he will head back towards Knepp. 

In early May we were surprised to receive a photograph of a satellite-tagged Cuckoo on the Knepp Estate in Sussex. This was unexpected, because although we have previously tagged birds at Knepp, we had lost contact with them all, either because they had died or the tag had failed.

So it was with great excitement that the team approached their nets early on the morning of 18 May after watching a tagged Cuckoo fly towards them. They had indeed caught the tagged bird and they soon discovered that this was Bluey, originally tagged in May 2022 at Knepp.

We tracked Bluey south across the Sahara to the border region between Mali and Senegal but lost contact with him in late July 2022. The diagnostic data from his tag did not suggest any sort of tag malfunction so we concluded that he had perished.

It was a joy to hear that he was alive and well back in Sussex. He appeared to be in good health, so the team removed his original tag and fitted him with a new tag; hopefully, this one will last longer. The map on this page will show his movements since having his new tag fitted in May 2023. We are hoping that we’ll be able to find out why his original tag failed.

Since being tagged, Bluey has remained on the Knepp Estate.