This bar-tailed godwit has colour bands that can be easily read from a distance. White, yellow, red and blue bands and coloured leg-flags are used in unique combinations of colour and position on each leg. The metal band on the upper left leg also has a number specific to that bird. Records from observers at any point along the migratory route add to the bank of knowledge about the movement of individual birds, and hence about the species. For example, a colour-banded godwit was photographed in Japan two weeks after last being seen in New Zealand.
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by Phil Battley
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