Godwit, knot and turnstone colour-banding in New Zealand

Arctic-breeding shorebirds are being colour-banded in New Zealand as part of studies on their movements and survival rates. (See the research page and international sightings).

Colour-banded birds have two colour-bands on each tarsus (lower leg). The bands will only ever be white (W), yellow (Y), red (R) or blue (B). A single white leg-flag is part of the combination, and its position is important! It can be on either the upper leg (tibia), or down with the colour-bands on the lower leg. If the flag is on the lower leg, you will need to note if it is above the bands, between them or below them.

On this godwit the four colour-bands and single leg-flag are clearly visible. The numbered metal band that is on the bird's upper left leg does not form part of the combination.

An easy way to record combinations in the field is to use a 't' to represent the legs, and draw the bands and flag in where they were seen. The godwit above would be recorded like this:

When writing the bands out, the combination would read "WB-WR, white flag right tibia". An excel spreadsheet is available for sending in band sightings, though we will accept records in any form! Resightings can be emailed directly to Phil Battley (North Island, NZ, and international) or Rob Schuckard (South Island, NZ), preferably on the downloadable excel sheet:

Example sheet	Colour-band reporting form

The spreadsheet may look like a lot of work, but some of it needs to be done only once. See the example sheet to see how a filled-in sheet looks. The information we would like is:

Species – Use the drop-down menu, and fill in one form per species.
Your name – Enter this each time you fill in a sheet.
Your address / email / phone – Fill these in the first time you submit a record; you will not need to thereafter.
Site name – e.g. Tapora, Kaipara Harbour.
Habitat – A general description, e.g. shellbank roost, tidal mudflat, Sarcocornia saltmarsh (again, only if you visit a new site).
NZ grid reference / lat-long – If you have one of these to hand, enter it (once only).
Date of observation
Weather/light – e.g. Windy, poor light; Calm, sunny, bright.
Time – Start and end of observation period.
High tide time – If you know it.
Stage of tide – Use drop-down menu: low / incoming / high / outgoing.
Activity of birds – Use drop-down menu: feed / preroost / roost / roost+feed.
Number of birds present – Total count, and use the pull-down menu to say if this is a count or estimate.
Number of birds checked – How many did you get to check the legs of? Also use the pull-down menu to say if this is a count or estimate.
Number of banded birds seen – Include all banded birds, even if you got only part of the combination.

To enter the combinations:

Put the bands in the left column (e.g. WBWR). If you are not certain of a band colour, put it in brackets with a question mark, e.g. W(B?)WR. If you could not see a band at all, put a question mark in the combination, e.g. Y?YY, ??RB.

Note the flag colour in the next column. White flags are used in New Zealand, but yellow flags will be used on birds in Northwest Australia. The eight possible flag positions are given in the next columns. Put a ‘1’ in the correct column. You can then enter the sex and breeding plumage score if you have them (click here for details), and make a comment about the bird.

Any general comments can be typed in below the bands when you are done.
There is a blank worksheet where you can enter and pre-sort records to figure out how many birds there were.

Saving the file – A file name that is self-explanatory is best, e.g. “knot Phil Battley June 21 2004.xls”.

This information is also available on the OSNZ website.