A cuckoo has just completed one the longest migrations ever recorded any bird. The cuckoo left its winter home Zambia in Southern Africa March the 20th and has arrived its breeding ground in Mongolia. Ornithologists named the bird Onon a Mongolian river. They tagged five different cuckoos Mongolia with microchips last summer to track their migration. The satellite tags monitored the progress the birds across the Indian Ocean and 16 countries. Onon was the quickest the five birds to make the return journey Mongolia to Zambia and back. The ornithologists hailed Onon's feat and described it as being "a mammoth journey".
The tagging the birds was a joint venture the Wildlife Science and Conservation Center of Mongolia and the British Trust for Ornithology. It was facilitated the group Birding Beijing and the Oriental Bird Club. A special blog called the Mongolia Cuckoo Project was set so bird lovers could track the birds' progress. It reported that Onon arrived home, "as 15:30 local time May 27, 2020 after a round trip of 26,000km, including 27 border crossings involving 16 countries." It called the journey: "Remarkable navigation and endurance." It added: "Onon has no time to waste as he needs to set his territory, defend it competing males and mate as many females as possible."
