Find Banded Piping Plovers

While we are on the beaches monitoring waterbirds this spring and summer please be on the lookout for Piping Plovers bearing bands and flags. Migratory periods in March-April and late summer have the most potential for marked birds to be found Connecticut. Information for reporting each flag color is provided below. Please cc both Laura.Saucier@ct.gov and ctwaterbirds@gmail.com with any reports, and feel free to email us with any questions.

Please include the following information with each report:

    Flag and band colors, location on each leg, and any alphanumeric codes on the flags.
    Location of sighting
    Date of sighting
    Any photo that shows the bands and/or flag

Coded black, gray, or white flags on the upper leg (photo below):  These are coded flags with two alphnumeric characters.  Please send reports to Cheri.Gratto-Trevor@ec.gc.ca.

Photo: Ron D’Entremont

Green flags (coded and uncoded) on the upper leg: Please send reports to vt.plover@gmail.com. Some of the green flags are coded with three alphanumeric characters, but other pipers carry an uncoded (plain) green flag along with lower leg bands. 

Pink coded flags on the upper leg (photo below) with two alphanumeric characters: Please report to vt.plover@gmail.com and cc wgolder@audubon.org and see the below notice via Audubon about the birds banded in The Bahamas this winter in PDF form.

http://rtpi.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Bahamas-Banded-PIPLs.pdf 

Photo: M. Jeffery

Orange flags (uncoded) and bands: Please report to plover@umn.edu.

Color bands on only the upper legs and no flag: Some of these have one band on each upper leg, some have two bands per upper leg. Please report to michelle.stantial@gmail.com and cc vt.plover@gmail.com.

Thank you for your help! We hope to find some of these birds here in Connecticut, and please remember that the more information and reports these projects receive the more can be understood about the biology of this threatened species.