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 top of one engraved ring there is always the small colour ring. Thus, there are always two rings (small colour ring on top of engraved ring) on one of the lower legs.

The short notation for the colour code contains the following eight successive elements.

1. Small colour ring is on the tarsus (always B from Below)
2. Indication of the left or right leg for the small colour ring on top of the engraved ring (L for left or R for right)
3. The letter of the colour of the small colour ring (1 letter)
4. A hyphen ("-")
5. The letter of the colour of the engraved ring on the left leg (1 letter)
6. The inscription on the engraved ring on the left leg (1 digit or letter)
7. The letter of the colour of the engraved ring on the right leg (1 letter)
8. The inscription on the engraved ring on the right leg (1 digit or letter)

Example BRB-R5Y4. This bird has a small black ring on top of a yellow ring with digit 4 on the right lower leg and a red ring with digit 5 on the lower left leg.

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 ?.

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

• B = Black
• C = dark blue (Cyan)
• G = dark Green
• O = Orange
• P = Pale blue
• R = Red
• W = White
• Y = Yellow

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