Bands

[Davinchi]

Just wanted an opinion on my birds band. I am pretty sure it's an open band, which means that he was wild caught I read. What do you all think?

 

[KimKim]

That's what it looks like to me.

 

[Davinchi]

At least he is fairly well behaved for a caught in the wild parrot then. He's not a cuddler, but he definitely shows his love

 

[KimKim]

Your really close to me my grey isn't a cuddler either, but he was hand fed and bought from a parrot store, at least that's what his paperwork said when I adopted him. He does not have a leg band.

 

[Davinchi]

I got mine from a family on craigslist. He also had a monkey that a "friend" brought into the country for him. So I guess I shouldn't be too surprised by that band. My illegal little treasure..lol

 

[MonicaMc]

Just because he has an open leg band doesn't mean that he was wild caught, although it does make the chances that he is wild caught higher.

You'll have to take a close look at the numbers and letters to determine if wild caught or not.... and even if he was wild caught it doesn't mean that he was captured as an adult.... many chicks were taken out of the nest so never truly understood what it was like to be wild.

 

[Echo]

Monica is right, it doesn't make him wild caught as you can buy open leg bands in the US.

However, you can check the ring and see if there are letters that would indicate the name of one of the few quarantine stations around the country....

 

[SoCalWendy]

That leg band would scare me, I would have it removed.

 

[Featheredsamurai]

aw poor guy, you should have it cut off at the vet. Rosie my galah was double open banded for some reason(same identification on each band). They caused her a lot of problems. And please don't try to do it yourself, my vet had to use GIANT bolt cutters to get Rosie off. She came in with a big one that didn't work, left and came back with a monster bolt cutter lol. 2 people had to very carefully hold Rosie so there were NO mishaps.

Rosie's open bands told me she was imported through a private QT station in NYC

Here's some info on open bands from "winged Wisdom"

TRACING A BIRD'S LEG BAND

Whether imported or domestic, open or closed banded, the leg band carries letters and numbers which identify the bird. Import bands are traceable. Domestic bands purchased from bird associations and some commercial vendors are also traceable.

Imported Birds

Imported birds are open banded at the quarantine stations before release. There are two types of quarantine stations, privately owned commercial import stations and USDA-owned and operated stations. The coding on the leg bands is different for each. The following information on import bands was printed in an article from Pet Business Magazine June, 1987 and may have changed since then.

USDA-owned and operated quarantine stations use bands with letters and three or four numbers. The letters refer to the name of the station:

• Honolulu, HI - HH
  Key West, FL - T
  Miami, FL - 58A, 58B, 58C, 58D, 58E, 58F or USDA-F
  Newburgh, NY - NNY

The letters on the leg bands of USDA-regulated pet bird quarantine stations refer to location and are followed by three or four numbers:

• Brownsville, TX - USDAB
  Honolulu, HI - USDAH
  Los Angeles, CA - USDAA
  Miami, FL - USDAM
  Mission, TX - USDAX ** for confiscated birds being put up for auction.
  Newburgh, NY - USDANNY
  San Ysidro, CA - USDAN

Privately owned commercial import stations use bands with an alphanumeric code - three letters followed by three numbers. The first letter signifies the state in which the station is located:

California - C,O
Florida - F
Hawaii - H
Illinois - I
Louisiana - L
Michigan - M
New York - N
Texas - T
The second letter denotes the quarantine station, while the third letter is part of the bird's ID number. For additional information regarding the numbers and letters on a bird's import band, call the USDA Administration Office Department of Agriculture, Fish, & Wildlife.

Also just a heads up, I have already tried calling the USDA to see if they kept any records at all, they told me all the old records from before are gone. And the private parrot QT stations went out of business after it became illegal to import parrots for the pet trade along with any of their records.