{"id":226,"date":"2012-08-21T20:09:10","date_gmt":"2012-08-21T20:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/windycityparrot.com\/blog\/?p=226"},"modified":"2012-08-21T20:09:10","modified_gmt":"2012-08-21T20:09:10","slug":"whats-story-bird-leg-bands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/?p=226","title":{"rendered":"What&#8217;s the Story with Bird Leg Bands?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Every once in a while we get a request <\/span><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">for bird leg bands. Because of the variety and broad selection necessary to satisfy every birders<\/span><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">\u00a0needs it&#8217;s a category that we choose not to cover at this time.<br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;\"><!--more--><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 18pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Leg bands come in a variety of sizes and are available in plastic, aluminum and stainless steel. Leg bands are used for different purposes. Many states and Uncle Sam require permits to move certain species of birds into a given state as well as owning some exotic birds. If you do need to obtain a permit you may need a bird&#8217;s band number because it will indicate that that bird was imported legally or bred domestically.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 18pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Birds that are imported from other countries contain certain codes on their bands. There are two types of quarantine stations, privately owned and USDA owned and operated both having a unique set of codes. Bands are also widely used for poultry.\u00a0The USDA mandates all imported birds must be banded. If you have an older bird with mature feet an open band is the only option to have one put on.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 18pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Closed bands are usually found on<\/span><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">\u00a0domestic birds. The most important reason for using a closed band is to provide a permanent means of identification which allows breeders to keep records of hatch dates, medical records, ownership and so forth and at the same time<\/span><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">\u00a0it makes possible the quick identification of a lost or stolen bird.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 18pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 18pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">One of the downsides to closed leg bands is they can get caught on wires and bird toys and can lead to serious injury especially if your bird gets trapped and no one is around to rescue it. They are circular have no seam. In most cases, if a bird is wearing a closed band it&#8217;s because only young birds about 2 to 3 weeks old can be close banded by sliding the band over the chick&#8217;s tiny foot so there&#8217;s a very small window before the foot grows too big for a band to be slipped over the foot and leg.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 18pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Open bands are simply small pieces of metal or plastic forming a circle. The ends of the metal bands don&#8217;t meet and are separated by space to enable them to slip over a mature bird&#8217;s leg. Once they&#8217;re slipped over the leg the band is pinched together. An open band is usually found on wild-caught or imported birds. Many people who race birds and get new birds to want some identification will use open bands<\/span><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">. They can be color coordinated to help a breeder identify a particular bird or it&#8217;s sex.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 18pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 18pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Depending upon the source of the brand it will determine if you can ultimately find the source of the bird. Organizations like the American Federation of Aviculture have recordkeeping services that may help in determining the origin of a lost bird.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 18pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">The Bird Banding Laboratory, located at the US Geological Survey Patuxent Research Center controls and issues all federal bands and banding permits under the Migratory Bird Treaty act<\/span>.<span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"> You&#8217;ll usually find a metal band on terrestrial birds. Plastic bands and collars will be found on waterfowl and shorebirds. If you find a wild bird that is banded<\/span><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">\u00a0you can report it on this site.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 18pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;\">It&#8217;s important to think about removing a leg band. You may have occasion to remove the leg band but you have to be very careful because unbanded\u00a0birds may not be able to be transported across the United States in the future. An unbanded\u00a0bird also may be more difficult to sell in the future or it could be harder to move out of state or to another country with your pet.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 18pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 18pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">If you are a member of the American Federation of Aviculture you can purchase stock closed aluminum bands one or two at a time from their\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/afabirds.org\/2018_WordPress\/store\/Leg-Bands-c29730076\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">website.<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 18pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 18pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">For locating birds with bands: 800-327-2263; or for identification of birds found in CA and NV: Tel. 916.414.6736 (Migratory Bird Permit Department &#8211; US Fish and Wildlife Service.)<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every once in a while we get a request for bird leg bands. Because of the variety and broad selection necessary to satisfy every birders\u00a0needs it&#8217;s a category that we choose not to cover at this time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":125786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","_mo_disable_npp":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[213,195,210,235],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bird-parrot-breeding","category-bird-parrot-care","category-bird-supplies-info","category-lost-birds"],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":{"landsacpe":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/legbands1sm-600-2.jpg?resize=600%2C445&ssl=1",600,445,true],"list":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/legbands1sm-600-2.jpg?resize=463%2C348&ssl=1",463,348,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/legbands1sm-600-2.jpg?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1",300,300,true],"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/legbands1sm-600-2.jpg?fit=600%2C600&ssl=1",600,600,false]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/legbands1sm-600-2.jpg?fit=600%2C600&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phcfkq-3E","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/125786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}