Banding your Birds
Banding your birds will help the process of keeping your records accurate. The bands can be used to differentiate between sexes, identify pairs in a colony, determine young birds from older breeding birds & note different bloodlines. Four different types of birds bands can be used. I use plastic colored split bands and aluminum numbered bands for most of my birds. Below is a chart which shows the four different types of bands and it's best fuction in record keeping.
Closed Aluminum Bands
If you are banding baby birds you must use closed aluminum bands as split bands will not stay on the baby birds leg.
Closed bands are engraved with the year in which the baby bird was born and a serial number which identifies the birds parents
Most closed bands also have three letters in the middle which either indicate the bird club or aviary in which the birds belong to.
It is a little more difficult to use closed bands than split bands but after a few times it becomes fairly easy.
I chose not to close band my baby birds unless nessasary as they can cause baby birds to get hung up in the nest.
Most people that purchase birds from me do not want the band on the bird.
Closed bands are harder to remove than split bands as they have to be cut off with band cutters.
You can purchase closed bands through many bird clubs or band companys such as L & M Bird Bands or Red Bird.
How To Close Band A Baby Bird:
Split Aluminum Bands (Numbered)
Split Aluminum Bands can easily be placed on birds to keep track of a birds sex, bloodline, or pair match.
There is no tool required to put on split bands, you just place the birds leg in the opening and press the band closed.
They come in different colors to help determine records at a glance without having to look up the number in your record book.
For instance you can put all red Aluminum numbered bands on your female birds and all blue bands on males.
.However, they do not seem to come in as many different colors as the
split plastic numbered bands.
I choose to use colored Aluminum numberd bands on my Cockatiels & Lovebirds.
These are very helpful for birds that chew through plastic.
Split Plastic Bands (Numbered)
You can use colored plastic bands which are numbered in any breeding program.
They come in different colors to help determine records at a glance without having to look up the number in your record book.
They can be purchased in many different colors and in consecutive numerical order.
I use these bands on most of my breeder pairs of finches. In my breeding program the color of the split plastic numbered band
indicates the birds bloodline and the number is it's id number. All info on this bird can be looked up with the Id number.
Each number is written in my records book and shows where and when the bird was purchased and clutch records etc.
Split Plastic Bands (Non-Numbered)
Colored Plastic bands are extremly helpful if you purchase birds to colony breed and do not know the sex of them.
You can place a different color plastic band on every bird on either leg and when you watch them and see the male singing you
can note the band color and which leg the band is on and record the information to number band it later.
These bands are also helpful to differentiate pairs at a glance without looking up numbers.
They can also be used to determine bloodlines at a glance.
I use these bands on birds which can not be sexed at a glance. I put red on males and purple on females.
I also place these bands on birds which can be sexed at a glance to denote pairs in colony breeding.
How To Put A Split Band On Your Bird:
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