Closed Bands

[Dragonwyke]

i'm not sure where to put this question, so i'll just put it here and hope for the best.

the little picking eclectus i got this week has a closed band on her left leg. the engraving is DHBB 887. does anyone know how i can find out where she was originally bred? so i can find out what life she was originally sold into and what year she was born. i've been told she might be 17yrs old. i've been some unstable information about her, i'd just like to find out some basics about my Arlene.

i haven't the vaguest idea about how to go about finding info on bands.

dw

 

[suebee]

from what iu have read bands are mainly for the breeders records, so each band might only make sense to the breeder arlene came from??

 

[Angela19]

Hi,

From what I know about bands (which isn't much) usually the first one or two letters is the state in which bird was banded FL-Florida T-Texas NY- New York and so on and the next letter or two is the breeders initials for Aviary then there is two numbers which are the hatch yr. I THINK....I have also seen them where the state abbr. is sideways. I did search this number for you in the Nation Band Registry and come up with nothing...good luck and congrats and your new family member.

Angela & Mango

 

[Auggie's Dad]

Unless there are other numbers/letters/symbols on it, it does not look like one of the major band-types, so as suebee said, it may not mean much of anything.

Are there any letters running vertically on the band, or anything else that may have been missed?

 

[Dragonwyke]

nope the only things on the band are the letters and numbers already posted. DHBB 887. so that band is just to say that she is domestically bred to anyone outside of the breeding aviary then, is that it? that she's not "wild caught".

i had thought that there was some central database of information available that keeps track of all these bands and numbers. there's nothing like that? if not, that's a real shame. it'd be so much easier, for breeding purposes and that sort of thing. i mean, w/breeding dogs and horses and such you don't want to get too much of line breeding and such but w/parrots bred in aviaries there doesn't appear to be anyway of keeping brother/sister, parent/offspring pairings from happening if no one is truly aware of who is who and where they come from. wouldn't that eventually have a detrimental affect on the offspring down the line? i mean, i know ppl don't breed for the same things in parrots, but eventually it's got to not be a good thing health and temperment wise.

DW

 

[Dragonwyke]

OH! and another thing on this particular band, does the number 887 indicate her birth date as that is the only number on the band? and if so, is 24yrs old considered old for an eclectus? is that geriatric, or middle aged or what?

in case you can't tell, she's my first eclectus. i really don't know that much about the species.

DW

 

[ShreddedOakAviary]

If a band is ordered from any of the 3 manufacturers, the year will be separate and only the last two digits, (if the breeder says they want the year.) The letters and numbers can be anything. I keep mine simple (or did back when I used bands). For a while mine read CIH (insert baby number), another number that identified the breeding pair baby came from and then the year.

The bad news is that anyone can call and order bands with any combonation of stuff on it. I can have all my bands EXACTLY the same.... SOA08881 if I wanted. Sorry but if a breeder doesn't want to be found through his bands he won't. Another (big breeder) could help.... oftentimes we recognize eachothers bands. But I don't band babies at all anymore....

 

[Auggie's Dad]

There are databases for the two main band suppliers. But this band does not match either of their formats.

If you can track down the supplier of the band they could probably get you some information - at least who the band was sold to (the breeder). But I wouldn't have a clue how to track down the manufacturer of the band.

The 887 is not likely a year ... if it is your parrot is VERY old indeed!

Bands never have birth/hatch date, but they sometimes have the year that the band was issued. In general this would be the hatch year, or possibly the year before hatching. But in this case the 887 just looks like a serial number: this was the 887th bird that was banded in batch DHBB.



As for inbreeding - breeders do keep track. But the later owners may not have that information. So it is *possible* that one could have bought a bird from a breeder, then latter decided to breed them, found another bird of the same species who *coincidentally* came from the same breeder *and* was a sibling to the first bird.

The odds of this, of course, are very slim - and first generation inbreeding really isn't a problem.

Random chance would keep sufficient outbreeding levels.

 

[Dragonwyke]

well, then this band is just a stupid thing then and does neither her nor i any good at all. DARN IT! i guess i'm back o square one then, no biggee, doesn't change the way i'm going to manage her care or recovery. but it would've helped to have some sort of idea of her age and origin. ah well.

if i ever get back into breeding again i'll be sure to use bands that are useful to someone. that's just irritating. lol

DW