All the cranes either banded as young near the nest or as moulting adults carry a long band (7 cm high) on the left tibia, indicating the country of origin of the bird. This is the "country colour band". On the right tibia there is a three-colour combination of rings, the "individual code". Most of the birds have also a small metal ring, which can be either above or below the intertarsal
articulation, and on the left or right leg.
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Colours used in colour ringing Common Cranes |
When all possible individual combinations (six colours) with long one-colour bands
are exhausted in natal areas, the country (one colour) long-band is substituted by a
three-colour "country combination", keeping the top and bottom rings of the same country colour, e.g. Germany was changing the country code from
Blue long bands to blue-white-blue, plus the individual combination. Sweden was changing the
red-long band
to red-white-red, and so on.
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Country long bands and country codes used up to now. The heigh of the long one-colour bands and the three-colour codes are the same total
height as the individual codes (70 mm). Sweden and Norway have been
banding within the same coordinated group up to now; from 2003 on the
Norwish group will start using Red-Black-Red as country code.
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|
COUNTRY LONG BANDS AND CODES USED |
| Sweden |
Red-
Long |
|
Red
White
Red |
|
Red
Blue
Red |
|
Red
Black
Red |
|
Red
Red
White |
|
Red
Red
Blue |
|
| Norway |
Red-
Long |
|
Red
White
Red |
|
Red
Blue
Red |
|
Red
Black
Red |
|
|
| Finland |
Yellow-
Long |
|
Yellow
Red
Yellow |
|
Yellow
Black
Yellow |
|
Yellow
White
Yellow
|
|
Yellow
Blue
Yellow
|
|
|
|
| Estonia |
White
Black
White |
|
Red-
Long |
|
|
| Germany |
Blue-
Long |
|
Blue
White
Blue |
|
Blue
Red
Blue |
|
Blue
Black
Blue
|
|
Blue
Blue
Red
|
|
|
|
| Poland |
Green-
Long |
|
|
Czech
Republic |
White
Red
White |
|
|
| Russia |
White-
Long |
|
|
| Israel |
Green
Red
Green |
|
|
|
In the last
Swedish country codes, the upper (round, dark red) ring is a metal
ring, and may therefore look somewhat darker or slightly different.
(Detail from picture by
S. Röper) |
 |
The birds banded at wintering or staging areas (Spain, France, Portugal) have only the three-colour combination on the right tibia, as their country of origin is unknown. A few individuals have been banded by mistake with the long country-colour-band (or
country combination) on the right tibia and the individual combination on the left. Therefore, observations of each leg must be very carefull because the situation of the country and the individual codes could help to identify a doubtful report.
Some birds may also carry a radio-transmitter attached to the left tibia (see
Radio-marking
procedures).
Before the current scheme of three-colour codes were adopted, following a Spanish proposal (see Alonso and Alonso 1999), some countries (Sweden,
Germany and Finland) banded some birds with Red-Long alpha-numeric rings (with one white letter and two white numbers).
Russia has been banding even afterwards with White-Long alphanumeric rings (a black Russian cyrillic letter and two
black numbers on a white ring). There are still some living birds with those
rings. They are usually very difficult to read unless the bird is very close to the observer and light conditions are excellent.
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In Finland, but also in Sweden and Estonia during some years, ringers have been using a special kind of Finnish colour rings. This rings
were made adding thin colour strips
around a long
white plastic band. The white colour under the coloured strips was sometimes very apparent, producing some confusion to the observers. Sometimes these rings have even been reported as a combination of more than three rings, because of the white long band under the colour code. The bird with the individual
code represented in the figure was reported as a five-ring code: W-Bk-Y-Bu-W. (See,
for example, picture of Swedish bird "R-Long
+ m / BuBkR").
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But the main problem was that although the intention was, in principle, to avoid the possibility that one or two rings would brake and get lost (see
picture and story of bird "(Transm.) / Bu-Y-(G)": This bird did loose the lower green ring somewhere between May and November 1998, i.e. almost 7 years after being banded). The whole Finnish made rings (the
white underlying plate plus the thin coloured strips) were still thinner and more fragile than the material used in Spain and Germany. Some birds, still juveniles, were soon observed where the whole set of rings (both country code or individual code) had been lost. Therefore these rings were not used in
Sweden and Estonia later than 1997.
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To facilitate the observations of colour codes in the field to observers not used to the colour banding of cranes, the ECWG recommends:
a) Keep in mind that there are no other colours than those represented up in this page (have a look again!), and that ringers never put two rings of the same colour together (e.g. Blue-Blue-Red).
Nevertheless, there are a few leg transmitters that could be confused with rings if the antenna is not noticed; they are of variety of shapes and colours.
b) Be careful when looking for the small metal ring; its position (tarsus vs. tibia, left vs. right) as well as its absence could be the clue to discriminate between two similar alternatives in some dubious readings. Write
or make a drawing of the true position
of all the rings and check it carefully before leaving the bird.
Colour Banding in Sweden (a summary of 365 birds)
| YEAR |
Alphanumeric
+ metal |
Alphanumeric
(only) |
Three-colour
+ metal |
Only metal |
| 1911 - 1984 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
79 |
| 1985 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
4(1) |
| 1986 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| 1987 |
6 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| 1988 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
| 1989 |
9 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| 1990 |
13 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
| 1991 |
6 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
| 1992 |
6 |
0 |
11 |
2(1) |
| 1993 |
1 |
0 |
10 |
5 |
| 1994 |
1 |
1 |
11 |
2 |
| 1995 |
3 |
0 |
20 |
0 |
| 1996 |
3 |
0 |
26 |
3 |
| 1997 |
0 |
0 |
22 |
3 |
| 1998 |
4 |
0 |
27(1) |
3 |
| 1999 |
1 |
0 |
35 |
3 |
| 2000 |
0 |
0 |
28 |
- |
| 2001 |
0 |
0 |
30 |
- |
| 2002 |
0 |
0 |
41 |
- |
| 2003 |
|
|
|
|
|
2004 |
|
|
|
|
|
2005 |
|
|
|
|
|
2006 |
|
|
59 |
|
| TOTAL |
63 |
2 |
380 |
110 |
| Including adult birds (in parenthesis) |
|
Compiled by Clas Hermansson, Swedish colour marking coordinator
until 2002, and by Simone Röper from April 2003 on. |
Colour Banding in Norway (a summary of 6 birds)
| YEAR |
Three-colour
+ metal |
| 1995 |
1 |
| 1996 |
1 |
| 1997 |
0 |
| 1998 |
0 |
| 1999 |
0 |
| 2000 |
4 |
| 2001 |
10 |
| 2002 |
6 |
| 2003 |
|
|
2004 |
|
|
2005 |
|
|
2006 |
|
| TOTAL |
22 |
|
Compiled by Clas Hermansson, Swedish colour marking coordinator |
Colour Banding in Estonia (a summary of 82 birds)
| YEAR |
Alphanumeric
+ metal
|
Three-colour
+ metal
(Made in Finland)
|
Three-colour
+ metal
(Made in Spain) |
| 1990 |
1 |
|
|
| 1992 |
1 |
|
|
| 1993 |
1 |
|
|
| 1994 |
2 |
|
|
| 1997 |
|
2 |
|
| 1998 |
|
3 |
|
| 1999 |
1 |
|
14 |
| 2000 |
|
|
8 |
| 2001 |
|
|
19 |
| 2002 |
|
|
12 |
| 2003 |
|
|
18 |
| 2004 |
1 |
|
21 |
| 2005 |
|
|
|
| 2006 |
|
|
|
| TOTAL |
7 |
5 |
92 |
|
Compiled by Aivar Leito, Estonian colour marking coordinatorBu-Bk |
Colour banding in Poland
| YEAR |
Only metal |
Three-colour
+ metal |
| 1932 |
2 |
|
| 1933 |
2 |
|
| 1936 |
4 |
|
| 1938 |
2 |
|
| 1949 |
3 |
|
| 1982 |
1 |
|
| 1984 |
2 |
|
| 1985 |
1 |
|
| 1989 |
1 |
|
| 1993 |
2(1) |
|
| 1998 |
1 |
|
| 2000 |
2 |
|
| 2001 |
|
10 |
| 2002 |
|
|
| 2006 |
|
|
| TOTAL |
23 |
10 |
|
Including adult birds (in parenthesis)
|
|
Compiled by J.A. Alonso, colour marking coordinator,
with data provided by Agnieszka i Krzysztof Konieczni.
There could be some more banded birds in the years 1966-1975 |
Colour banding in Germany (a summary of 451 birds)
| YEAR |
Only metal |
Alphanumeric
+ metal |
Three-colour
+ metal (backpack transmitters) |
With a
leg-transmitter1 |
| 1960 |
1 |
|
|
|
| 1989 |
|
11 |
|
|
| 1990 |
|
|
6 |
|
| 1991 |
|
|
2 |
|
| 1992 |
|
|
4 |
|
| 1993 |
|
|
1 |
|
| 1994 |
|
|
26 |
|
| 1995 |
|
|
15(2) |
3 |
| 1996 |
|
|
40(11) |
7 |
| 1997 |
|
|
52(13) |
5 |
| 1998 |
|
|
53(11) |
4 |
| 1999 |
|
|
76(10) |
1 |
| 2000 |
|
|
62(15) |
- |
| 2001 |
|
|
65(14) |
- |
| 2002 |
|
|
52(15) |
|
| 2003 |
|
|
86(28) |
|
| 2004 |
|
|
50 (6) |
|
| 2005 |
|
|
|
|
| 2006 |
|
|
|
|
| TOTAL |
1 |
63 |
540(114) |
20 |
|
Including adult birds (in parenthesis)
|
|
Compiled by Günter Nowald, German colour marking coordinator |
Colour banding (rings and tags) in the Czech Republic
| YEAR |
Only metal |
Darvic |
Three-colour
+ metal |
Tags |
| 1997 |
2 |
|
|
|
| 1999 |
2 |
|
|
|
| 2000 |
|
1 |
|
1 |
| 2001 |
|
3 |
|
1 |
| 2002 |
|
1 |
1 |
1 |
| 2003 |
|
1 |
1 |
|
| 2004 |
|
|
|
|
| 2005 |
|
|
|
|
| 2006 |
|
|
|
|
| TOTAL |
4 |
10 |
|
|
|
Including adult birds (in parenthesis)
|
|
Compiled by L. Peske, Czech colour marking
coordinator |
Colour Banding in Spain (a summary of 102 birds)
| YEAR |
Three-colour
+ metal |
Three-colour
only1 |
With a
leg-transmitter2 |
| 1988 |
22 |
- |
8 |
| 1989 |
6 |
1 |
4 |
| 1990 |
25 |
24 |
20 |
| 1991 |
- |
12 |
3 |
| 1992 |
- |
12 |
2 |
| TOTAL |
53 |
49 |
37 |
|
(1) metal ringing was supressed as soon as damage on some legs was observed
(2) backpack transmitters not included in this table |
|
Compiled by Javier A. Alonso, Spanish colour marking coordinator |
Colour Banding in Finland (a summary)
| |
1990 |
1991 |
1992 |
1993 |
1994 |
1995 |
TOTAL |
| Ringed |
16 |
46 |
48 |
29 |
66 |
63 |
268 |
| Found |
3 |
20 |
21 |
6 |
27 |
22 |
|
|
This information was gathered by J.A. Alonso, colour marking coordinator, for the European Crane Data Base, in Stralsund
(1996) with the help of C. Hermansson (Sweden), G. Nowald (Germany) and I. Fintha (Hungary), and
is, therefore, not completely reliable.
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