The programme of flagging waders has revolutionised wader migration studies, and probably more waders have been flagged in recent years than have ever been flagged before - and, if the destruction of wetlands continues, probably ever will be.

The programme started in Australia in 1990, and a flagging protocol has been developed for the East-Asian Australasian Flyway, which enables any country, or in some cases regions within a country, to join the scheme.
At present Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, China (Hong Kong) and Taiwan are colour flagging birds.
The Australasian Wader Studies Group has now assumed responsibility for processing all leg flag markings in Australia under agreement with, and with limited financial support from, Environment Australia which is the Environment Portfolio of the Commonwealth Government of Australia.

The "flag" is a small coloured plastic band with a tab on the end. Flags can be placed either on the upper part of the leg (the tibia), the lower (the tarsus), or both upper and lower.

Easily seen by an observer, it means that, unlike with banding/ringing, the bird does not have to be re-caught to find out in which region it has been banded.
For birds from Victoria, S.E. Australia, the reporting rate from flagged birds is 17 times that of banded bands, and for N.W. Australia 5 times.
Also flagged birds can be watched for anywhere, as opposed to banded birds for which most recoveries only come from a few areas where there is much hunting or banding activity. For some species and localities in the Flyway where there have been many flag sightings it is now becoming possible to find out the timings of migrations of birds from different origins (i.e. N.W. and S.E. Australia: Alaska and Siberia) through the same area, and even to make estimates of the proportions of the total populations passing through.

The table below lists the the colours of the flags being placed on waterbirds by countries following the AWSG protocol: in the table, upper/lower refers to the part of the leg that the flag is placed on.

All countries starting flagging are urged to follow the protocol.

The colour scheme has been carefully worked out to ensure that all researchers throughout the Flyway benefit from the program, and do not destroy other people's research, (and their own), by not following the protocol.

 

(More information on Colour Flagging can be found on the Australasian Waders Study Group website.)

White	Black	Blue	Green	Orange	Yellow
nothing	nothing	nothing	nothing	nothing	nothing
North Island	unused	Northern Japan	QLD	Victoria	NWA
New Zealand		Japan	Australia	Australia	Australia
White	Black	Blue	Green	Orange	Yellow
White	White	White	White	White	White
Delay use	Shanghai	Central Japan	Singapore	discontinued	Sakhalin Island
	China	Japan	Singapore		Russia
White	Black	Blue	Green	Orange	Yellow
Black	Black	Black	Black	Black	Black
discontinued	Delay use	Hainan-Guangxi		Sumatra	Kamchatka
		Provisional / Available
		China	Cambodia	Indonesia	Russia
White	Black	Blue	Green	Orange	Yellow
Blue	Blue	Blue	Blue	Blue	Blue
Taiwan	South Philippines	Northern Japan	Jiangsu	Tasmania	Darwin region
			Provisional / Available		Provisional / Available
China	Philippines	Japan	China	Australia	Australia
White	Black	Blue	Green	Orange	Yellow
Green	Green	Green	Green	Green	Green
South Island	Inner Gulf of Thailand		Delay use	NSW
New Zealand	Thailand	Mongolia		Australia	Vietnam
White	Black	Blue	Green	Orange	Yellow
Orange	Orange	Orange	Orange	Orange	Orange
	Java	Southern Japan	Northern Yellow Sea	Delay use	SW WA
Korea	Indonesia	Japan	China		Australia
White	Black	Blue	Green	Orange	Yellow
Yellow	Yellow	Yellow	Yellow	Yellow	Yellow
Hong Kong		Yellow River Delta	Gulf of Carp.	SA	Delay use
	Provisional / Available	Provisional / Available	Provisional / Available
China	Malaysia	China	Australia	Australia
Protocols last updated by AWSG on 24/June/2007

Other

Yellow band	Dark Green flag	Pale Blue	Pale Blue	Pale Green
Dark Green flag	Yellow band	White	nothing	nothing
Alaska	Alaska	Wrangel Island	Northern Chukotka	Southern Chukotka
USA	USA	Russia	Russia	Russia
Protocols last updated by AWSG on 24/June/2007