Keen Cuckoo followers will know that we have been growing increasingly concerned for Cuckoo Cooper as we stopped receiving updates from him shortly after he arrived in Nigeria in early September. Having looked closely at the tag data our Cuckoo scientist Dr Chris Hewson has deduced that sadly Cooper has perished. We don't know how he died, he seemed to be taking a fairly "safe" and direct route towards the Congo but he is one of two birds to have perished in eastern Nigeria this year. Cooper has given us an additional run of valuable data to add to our growing knowledge of Cuckoo ecology.

We haven't received any further updates from Cooper since 7th September when he was still in eastern Nigeria. Hopefully we will hear from Cooper again soon.

Cooper has flown 347km (215 miles) south east within Nigeria and is now in the north of Taraba state. He is 80km (50 miles) north west of the state capital city of Jalingo.   

Having spent the last ten days in Niger, Cooper has flown 573km (356 miles) south east into Nigeria. He is now on some farmland 50km (31 miles) south east of Zaria City in north central Nigeria.

Since our last update Cooper has flown 271km (169 miles) south into the south western corner of Niger. He is now approximately 16km (10 miles) east of the city of Dosso.  

Over the last couple of days Cooper has been crossing some of the most desolate and inhospitable places on the planet. He has flow south through the Algerian Sahara, navigating to the west of the Hoggar Mountains, over eastern Mali and into south west Niger. By 05:38 this morning he was 286km (178 miles) north east of the capital Niamey.

Having moved to the coast of north eastern Spain over the last few days, Cooper has pressed on across the Mediterranean and into northern Africa. A couple of lower quality signals received between 6 and 7am this morning show him over the Sahara in north central Algeria, approximately 112km (70 miles) due north of the town of Foggaret Ezzoua. The daytime temperatures in this region in July have been known to soar to 50 °C (122 °F) or even higher, so Cooper won't be hanging around here!

Over the weekend Cooper has flown 363km (225 miles) south from his last location near Cahors in central France to  north east Spain. By  10pm on Saturday night he was just south of the town of Canyelles in the south of Barcelona Province. 

Having stopped briefly just south of the city of Tours, Cooper has continued south and by 10am this morning had reached the Occitanie region of southern France. He is now approximately 11 miles due east of the historic city of Cahors.Cooper has already covered 764 km (475 miles) since leaving England.