Cuckoo takes a surprising route
The migration habits of a cuckoo caused surprise last week when it was tracked by satellite to investigate migration habits.
The bird, known as Lyster, was expected to fly towards Africa by heading west around the Sahara Dessert, as it did last year. However, the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) tracked him 1,000km east, on the Algerian coast.
It is thought that Lyster found Algeria a suitable habitat on his way to the UK from Africa earlier this year, and took this route due to more favourable conditions. It is otherwise believed that he may have simply drifted off course.
'[The BTO] expected Lyster to follow the same route as last year, but to our surprise it was 1,000 east after an extraordinary 500km crossing of the Mediterranean Sea,' said Paul Sandliffe, part of the BTO cuckoo-tracking team.
Lyster is one of five birds originally tagged n 2011 by the BTO, however only signals from him and another cuckoo called Chris remain. They have this year tagged another 11 cuckoos.The BTO are hoping this will provide an insight as to why there has been a 50% decline in British cuckoos over the last 25 years.
Lyster is still making his journey to Africa, and is expected to stay in the Congo Basin rainforest for the winter.
The BSAVA has opened submissions for the BSAVA Clinical Research Abstracts 2026.
