ForpusAviary.com

Banding Procedure

I have long been in favor of closed banding of birds. It is the first step to good record keeping which is a must for any serious breeder. Closed banding is the best visual method of identifying birds in the flock to keep up the genetic diversity and to work with developing positive traits and color varieties. I use bands from The American Federation of Aviculture because they are traceable back to me and I like the organization. You can use bands ordered from any number of societies or you can buy them directly from L&M Bird Leg Bands, Inc. in California. L&M also caries the plastic leg bands I will talk about further down this page. I band my parrotlets at ten days of age or when the band will not come off.

Below you will find my method of banding my birds. This method allows me to be able to look into a large flight of birds and be able to tell at a glance what a bird is split to or has the potential to be split to. This lets me find birds I need without having to catch every bird in the flight causing unneeded stress to the birds.

This method is really very simple once you study it.

This is how it goes:

Right Legs are for what you know:

Right leg banded with a solid band designating the bird’s known split color variety.

(Normal / Yellow would be banded on the right leg with a Yellow band)

Left Legs are for what is possible:

Left leg banded with a plastic band designating possible split color varieties (unknown without test mating).

(Normal / Yellow / (Blue - possible) would be banded on the right leg with a Yellow band on the left leg with a blue band)

Reverse legs for double splits with striped plastic bands:

Right leg striped plastic band / Left leg solid band

(Normal / Yellow / Blue would be banded on the right leg with a yellow blue striped plastic band and on his left with a solid band representing the main color variety you are trying to work with.)

Color Varieties: Right Leg Color Bands Left Leg Color Bands

Known Splits Possible / Known Splits / Double Splits

Solid Bands Plastic Bands

Normal / Grey Green Silver White

Blue Blue Dark Blue

Lutino Orange Orange

Fallow Red Red

Isabel Green Light Green

Pastel Violet Violet

Yellow Yellow Yellow

Pied Black Black

Double splits reverse legs bands are put on:

Plastic Bands Solid Bands

Normal / Yellow / Blue Yellow/Dark Blue Striped (Known color variety)

Normal / Lutino / Blue Orange/Light Blue Striped (Known color variety)

Normal / Isabel / Blue Dark Blue/Light Blue Striped (Known color variety)

Normal / Pastel / Blue Dark Blue/Light Pink Striped (Known color variety)