ABOUT THE BAND
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A closed band appears to
be a flat solid piece of metal wrapped around the bird's leg. It may have letters and numbers
embossed in the surface. Record these codes to help prove your ownership in case the bird escapes
or is stolen.
The band on your bird's leg tells a lot. An "OPEN" band, is a round wire ring with a split in it. The split is where it was bent to form a circle around the leg of the bird. Most birds with open bands were not domestically raised-they were caught in the jungles and imported as adults. If you were sold a bird as a "baby" and it is wearing an open band, you may not have gotten what you thought you did. The codes on open bands only mean something to the USDA-unfortunately they will not tell much about your particular bird.
A "CLOSED means that the band is solid, with no splits in
the band. These closed bands are slid on over the foot of the
baby bird before it is full-grown. The letters on your bird's
closed band may be traceable; that means that some organization
has records showing who raised that particular bird. If the band
includes the letters "NCS", "ACS", "ALB",
"SPBE", or "AFA", these bands are traceable.
Other codes may be private codes used by breeders to keep track
of genetics or lineage.
