4 November 2016
With no movement, despite plummeting temperatures in Beijing, and temperature data indicating a lack of body temperature mitigating the day/night fluctuations in the atmospheric temperature, we can only conclude that we have lost Zigui. We cannot rule out the possibility that the tag has fallen off the bird but the most likely explanation is that Zigui has perished. Natural mortality is high in cuckoos and, of course, we don’t know how old he was when he was fitted with a tag, so it’s possible he was simply old. When the days are longer, next spring, and the solar panel charges the battery enough for the tag to begin transmitting again, we hope to recover the tag which should give us some clues as to the fate of Zigui.
1 August 2016
子规 （Zigui）remains in the vicinity of Yeyahu National Wetland Reserve but with Flappy already on the move, we are expecting Zigui to begin his southward migration very soon!
子规 （Zigui） was the first of the Beijing Cuckoos to be given a Chinese name. Zigui is a traditional name for Cuckoo in the Chinese language and was selected by members of the China Birdwatching Society. He was the first of three Cuckoos to be tagged at Yeyahu National Wetland Reserve in northwest Beijing and he has spent the whole summer in this vast area.
We expect Zigui to begin his southward migration in the next few weeks but, as of 20 July, he remains in the Yeyahu area.