brendank

Saw at least three ringed shorebirds at Mai Po 7 Aug 2010--Eurasian Curlew, Common Redshank and Common Greenshank.  The yellow bands mean they were ringed in HK, right?

Brendan

sbena

Hi Brendan,

You might find this pdf about leg-flagging from the WWF-HK website of use:

English

Chinese

Bena.

ajohn

Thanks for posting these Brendan. The combination of White over Yellow flags indicates that the birds were ringed in Hong Kong (note that birds with just Yellow flags are from Australia).

The Curlew is especially interestin - only 2 have been flagged in HK. The fresh flags suggest that this may be a bird ringed earlier this year (March), but it is not possible to know.

We will hopefully start using engraved flags soon, so that individuals will be recognisable. Please continue to look out for these flags, and report them.

brendank

Thanks for the information--very interesting.  I would say the color scheme for the Curlew is yellow and red.  Is that a new color scheme for Hong Kong?

Brendan

ajohn

No, all HK flags are white and yellow. One problem we have is that these often look slightly discoloured - usually so that they may appear as Yellow and Orange. This is apparent on the Redshank flag in these photos.