Colour code

The birds in this project are ringed with 1 engraved colour ring in combination with two small colour rings with engraving and a metal ring. The engraved ring in on the lower leg with a small colour ring underneath it. On the upper leg there is also a small colour ring without engraving. The metal band is on the other upper leg.

The short notation of the colour code consists of the following 7 subsequent elements:

  1. Position of the small colour ing on the upper leg (L for left or R for right). In actual fact this is always on the left upper leg.
  2. The letter of the colour of the small colour ring on the upper leg (1 letter).
  3. A hyphen ("-")
  4. The position of the ring with engraving (L of R) (1 letter)
  5. The letter of the colour on the ring with engraving (1 letter)
  6. The inscription of the ring with engraving (1 letter)
  7. The letter of the colour of the small colour ring under the engraved ring (1 letter)

Exmaple LR-RRLY. This bird has a small red colour ring on the left upper leg and on the right lower leg a red ring with the letter L on top of a yellow ring.

A detailed description can be found in Waderttrack

It is preferable to draw the rings in case of ring loss. The position of the metal ring and (incomplete) information on the code on the metal ring may provide valuable information on the identity of a bird. In color codes the positions of lost rings have an @ and positions of rings that could not be seen a ?.


colour-letters (Beware, these are not the usual/standard abbreviations)

  • B = Black
  • C = dark blue (Cyan)
  • G = Green
  • O = Orange
  • L = light green (Lime)
  • R = Red
  • W = White
  • Y = Yellow
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