After a seemingly long period of “busy silence”,
it is time to update the story of our five satellite-tracked African Cuckoos. Let us now consider what has happened since
the last blog.
Cuckoos #94 and #96 are still within the
Jos area. The two birds have spent most of their time, presumably foraging and
breeding, between the Amurum Forest Reserve and neighboring villages and
settlements.
Cuckoo #95 stopped transmitting in
mid-June. The failure of transmission is most likely due to failure of the
transmitters. This is because efforts to find the bird from the place of last
transmission were not successful. Also, the device transmitted for a short
period about 2 weeks later from the same general area. It therefore seems that
this individual may be flying about with a faulty transmitter.
Cuckoo #97 has been the most adventurous
individual. After spending a few weeks around the APLORI /Laminga/Kerker areas,
in mid-June it flew towards Bassa Local Government Area of Plateau state where
it spent about 1 week before moving towards the border of Plateau and Kaduna
state to spend an additional 2 days. At the end of June, the bird then returned
to the APLORI/Laminga/Kerker areas, stayed until mid-July before departed an
area close to Toro, Bauchi State. On the 24 of September it had moved to
another location about 100 km away.
Cuckoo #98 stayed within the
APLORI/Laminga/Kerker area until mid-August before moving to an area close to
Toro, Bauchi State.
Considering that this project started just
at about the beginning of the rains, and also that two cuckoos are still around
the general area where they were trapped, I speculate that the cuckoos may
begin to show longer and clearer movements at the end of the rainy season in
the Jos area. Also, given that Diederick cuckoos and Klaas’s cuckoos are currently
still heard calling around the Amurum Forest Reserve, the prolonged stay of the
two individuals may be in response to resources that are still abundant.
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