Colour code
The birds in this project are ringed with two colour rings engraved with a letter in combination with one small colour ring (marker). The engraved rings are each on one lower leg. On each of the lower legs there is an engraved ring. On one of the upper legs there is a small colour ring without inscription. Thus, there is always only one ring on each part of a leg.
The short notation for the colour code contains the following seven successive elements.
- Indication of the left or right leg for the small colour ring (L for left or R for right)
- The letter of the colour of the small colour ring (1 letter)
- A hyphen ("-")
- The letter indicating the colour of the engraved ring on the left leg (1 letter)
- The inscription on the engraved ring on the left leg (1 letter or digit)
- The letter indicating the colour of the engraved ring on the right leg (1 letter)
- The inscription on the engraved ring on the right leg (1 letter or digit)
Example LR-YEOP. This bird has a small red colour ring on the left upper leg, left below a yellow ring the with the letter E and right below an orange ring with the letter P.
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 = dark Green
- O = Orange
- L = light green (Lime)
- R = Red
- W = White
- Y = Yellow
