Report a ringed shorebird

Some of the shorebirds on our coast carry small coloured rings and a plastic flag on their legs. Each bird carries a unique combination, so a single sighting tells us where that individual has travelled and how long it has survived. Reporting one takes about two minutes.

Colour rings cannot be reported through the SAFRING online system, which only accepts metal ring numbers. Use the form on this page instead. If you also read a metal ring number, enter it in the form and we will pass it to SAFRING for you.

What to look at

Birds ringed by this project carry a yellow flag at the top of the right tarsus and a metal ring on the right tibia. Not every bird carries a ring in every position, and birds ringed in other countries use different colours and positions.

Four things that make a report usable

Left and right mean the bird’s own left and right. If the bird is facing away from you, its left leg is on your left. If it is facing you, its left leg is on your right. Getting this the wrong way round can attribute the bird to another country’s scheme, so it is worth pausing over.
Read each leg from the top down. Above the knee joint first, then below it. Report each position separately in the form rather than writing out a code.
Say when you could not see something. A leg buried in mud or water is not the same as a leg with no ring on it, and the form asks you to distinguish the two. A partial report is useful; a guessed one is not.
Send a photograph if you have one, however poor. It lets us check the reading, and it is often the difference between a record we can use and one we cannot. Please do not crop or resize it, as the location data is useful to us.

The colours we use

Rings in this project are one of five colours. The swatches below are approximate: rings fade in the sun and change appearance in low light, so if a colour does not look right, choose ring present, colour uncertain in the form rather than picking the nearest match.

Green G
Black N
Pale blue P
Yellow Y
Red R

Seen a ringed bird that is not a shorebird, or a bird with a metal ring only? Report metal ring numbers to SAFRING. For anything else, email jessica.wilmot@birdlife.org.za.

Report your sighting

If you saw more than one ringed bird, please complete the form once for each.

Report a Ringed Migratory Bird

Use this form to report a colour-ringed or flagged migratory shorebird. Please report every sighting, even if you can only see some of the rings.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Before you start

Colour rings and flags cannot be reported through the SAFRING online system, which only accepts metal ring numbers. Please use this form instead. If you have read a metal ring number as well, enter it below and we will pass it to SAFRING for you.

Left and right means the bird's own left and right, not yours. If you are unsure, upload a photograph and leave the positions you could not see as Could not see this position.

Rings are recorded from the top of each leg downwards: above the knee joint (tibia) first, then below it (tarsus).

Species(Required)

The first six are the species carrying rings from this scheme. Ringed shorebirds of other species belong to other schemes and are just as welcome here. If you are not sure what you saw, say so and upload a photograph: we will work it out.

If you know what it was, which species?

Leave blank if you are not sure. A photograph is more useful to us than a guess.

The flag

A flag is a ring with a small tab sticking out. Its colour, together with which leg and which part of the leg it is on, is what tells us which country ringed the bird. Please record the position carefully even if you cannot see anything else.

Was there a flag, and where was it?(Required)

Remember that left and right mean the bird's own left and right.

Flag colour(Required)

Birds ringed in South Africa under this project carry a yellow flag on the right leg, below the knee. Other colours and positions belong to other countries' schemes and are just as valuable to us.

Any letters or numbers engraved on the flag (usually none)

South African flags are plain, so leave this blank for a yellow flag. Some other countries engrave a code on the flag. If you can see one, copy it exactly and use a question mark for characters you cannot read, e.g. A?7.

Colour rings

Now work down each leg and choose what you saw at each position: above the knee joint (tibia) first, then below it (tarsus). Do not record the flag again here.

Use No ring at this position only if you could see the position clearly and there was no ring there. If you could not see it, say so: a missed ring and an absent ring mean very different things to us.

LEFT leg, above knee (tibia)(Required)

RIGHT leg, above knee (tibia)(Required)

Birds in this scheme carry the metal ring here.

LEFT leg, below knee, UPPER ring (CR1)(Required)

LEFT leg, below knee, LOWER ring (CR2)(Required)

RIGHT leg, below knee, UPPER ring (CR3)(Required)

Record the flag separately below, not here.

RIGHT leg, below knee, LOWER ring (CR4)(Required)

Did you read a metal ring number?(Required)

Metal ring number

Include the scheme address if visible. Use a question mark for characters you cannot read.

How confident are you in this reading?(Required)

Certain: I saw the full combination clearly, or I have a clear photograph

Fairly confident, but the view was brief or partly obscured

Not certain: poor light, distance, mud or vegetation

An honest 'not certain' is far more useful to us than a confident guess.

Notes on the rings

Anything that does not fit the boxes above: a colour you could not match, a ring that looked faded or damaged, mud on the legs, or the order you saw things in.

Where and when

Date of sighting(Required)

Time of sighting (24 hour, e.g. 07:45)

Site name(Required)

For example: Langebaan Lagoon, Geelbek hide.

Province or country(Required)

Latitude (decimal degrees)(Required)

Please enter a number from -90 to 90.

Southern latitudes are negative. In Google Maps, press and hold on the spot and copy the numbers shown.

Longitude (decimal degrees)(Required)

Please enter a number from -180 to 180.

Longitudes east of Greenwich are positive.

How did you get the coordinates?(Required)

Habitat

How many ringed or flagged birds did you see in total?

Please enter a number greater than or equal to 1.

If you saw more than one, submit a separate report for each combination.

Rough size of the flock the bird was in

Please enter a number greater than or equal to 1.

Photographs

Drop files here or

Accepted file types: jpg, jpeg, png, heic, heif, gif, tif, tiff, Max. file size: 15 MB, Max. files: 5.

Please upload a photograph if you have one, even a poor one. A photograph lets us check the reading and is the single most useful thing you can send. Please do not crop or resize it.

Anything else about the sighting

Behaviour, tide state, disturbance, condition of the bird, or whether you have seen this individual before.

About you

We need your contact details so we can send you the bird's ringing history and follow up if anything is unclear.

Your name(Required)

Your email address(Required)

Your phone number (optional)

Organisation or bird club (optional)

Permission to use this record(Required)

I agree that BirdLife South Africa may store these details and use this sighting for conservation research, and may share the sighting record with SAFRING, the ringer who marked the bird and other partner schemes. See our privacy policy.

Keep in touch

Please email me occasional updates about the shorebird tracking project.

What to look at

Four things that make a report usable

The colours we use

Report your sighting

Report a Ringed Migratory Bird

Before you start

The flag

Colour rings

Where and when

About you

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