A cuckoo, which is being tracked on its sea journey between Africa and Ireland, has landed in Killarney National Park.
Cuach Cores, as the bird is known, has flown all of 9,000 km from Ghana north, crossing the Bay of Biscay and coming ashore in western France last weekend.
The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), which has been tracking the bird with the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), says the bird can now be heard around Derrycunnihy church in Killarney National Park.
"Cores left Spain, and after a flight across the Bay of Biscay, came ashore in western France on Saturday. Currently on the outskirts of the town of Villeneuve-en-Retz. He is poised to head north straight into Ireland. he’s pretty much on schedule! “the BTO had said last weekend.
The cuckoo was first tagged in May 2023, and has completed several journeys as part of the project. The last signal before this year’s identification was in Autumn 2025, when he had successfully crossed the Sahara.
On March 19th, the BTO says it picked up a signal that the bird was in Ghana, and may have spent the last four months in the forests of Congo.
On April 10th, his signal was picked up in Spain in the mountainous region close to the village of Cañadas de Cañepla.
The cuckoo, along with the swallow and the corncrake, has a long Irish history as a harbinger of summer, arriving in the last days of April, which have often been referred to as ‘the time of the cuckoo’, the NPWS says.
Cuckoos are a summer migrant to Ireland, with adult birds only being here from April to early July, having spent the winter in Africa, and are a unique bird in Ireland as they lay their eggs in other birds’ nests and have no involvement in raising their young, it says.
The cuckoo has seen a 27% contraction in breeding distribution between the first national census, Bird Atlas (1968-1972), and the most recent Bird Atlas (2007-2011).
In the most recent Bird Atlas, population trends across Britain and Ireland show large declines across England and Wales, increases in Scotland and relative stability in Ireland.
The bird’s population shift northwards and westwards is similar to a number of other migrants which winter in Africa’s humid regions.
However, there is little known about the potential causes and drivers of these declines, the NPWS says. It is hoped the tracking project will help to answer some of these questions, and confirm whether Irish cuckoos undertake a different migration strategy to their British counterparts across the Irish Sea.
Four Irish cuckoos are being tracked as part of the NPWS/BTO project – three from Killarney National Park, and one from Burren National Park, Co. Clare.
The birds were given names matching the areas they were tagged, such as ‘Cuach Torc’ and ‘Cuach Cores’ from Derrycunnihy, Killarney National Park.
Cuach Cores was the first cuckoo in Ireland and Britain to arrive in the Democratic Republic of Congo in September 2023.
