Banding finches
Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 1:51 am
Someone recently asked me to post about banding, where to get them, why to use them. The main reason to band your birds is so you can keep track of parentage, and on birds that look exactly alike, so you can keep track of parents and their babies. I want to breed unrelated birds, and the only way I can make sure of that is to mark the birds in some way--split plastic bands work wonderfully for this. My old system was to assign a color to a breeding pair, put a band of that color on the left leg of each parent, then the babies got that color band on their right leg. This way, you don't pair up brother to sister, or father to daughter, etc.
I used to only use split plastic bands, as I read on another website about a well-known breeder who will not closed band, due to the fact that when she first tried, she broke toes, etc., and did not want to go thru that again. I figured that if someone who was a breeder didn't want to do it, I for sure was not going to closed band! Well, I am now solidly in favor of using closed bands as much as possible. With closed bands, you know the year of birth. You know you are not being sold someone's old birds. If it is a pair, the numbers shouldn't be too close together--if they are say 502 and 503, chances are pretty good you have a brother/sister pair! It really helps you when you are buying birds. When selling birds, it shows the buyer that you are a serious, reliable breeder.
I get my bands from www.nfss.org, the National Finch and Softbill Society. You have to be a member in order to purchase closed bands. The bands have the year, a number, and the size (the size should be the correct size for that species, or one size up if the birds were banded at fledging, as I do), and each year has a color assigned to it.
You can also order split plastic bands from NFSS without being a member. I like to order plastic bands from them, because they have the smaller size that I need for waxbills. You can use those soft plastic bands that are made from beads, and I love those, but they will slip right off a waxbill leg.
Redbird Products has split leg bands that are numbered, also two-color leg bands. Their website is www.redbirdproducts.com. I believe TammyS at www.justbirdstuff.com also carries leg bands now.
Just as an example, I recently bought a pair of Red-headed Parrot finches. They have NFSS bands on them, so I know the year they were born. They also had split color bands on them, so I know this breeder has a system in place to keep track of his breeding efforts. Since these birds cannot be visually sexed, he also has a DNA test done on them, and he provided their hatch date. What more could you ask? Wouldn't you feel very comfortable purchasing birds from this person?
On the other hand, I purchased two other pairs of birds from someone else. These birds are not closed banded. They have no color bands on them at all. Hello--the alarm bells should have been deafening! I let my heart carry me away, and after the fact, I have to wonder what kind of record keeping that person has. I'm not saying you should never buy a bird that doesn't have any leg bands, as there are certainly lots of them out there, but the leg bands sure take a lot of the guesswork out.
I used to only use split plastic bands, as I read on another website about a well-known breeder who will not closed band, due to the fact that when she first tried, she broke toes, etc., and did not want to go thru that again. I figured that if someone who was a breeder didn't want to do it, I for sure was not going to closed band! Well, I am now solidly in favor of using closed bands as much as possible. With closed bands, you know the year of birth. You know you are not being sold someone's old birds. If it is a pair, the numbers shouldn't be too close together--if they are say 502 and 503, chances are pretty good you have a brother/sister pair! It really helps you when you are buying birds. When selling birds, it shows the buyer that you are a serious, reliable breeder.
I get my bands from www.nfss.org, the National Finch and Softbill Society. You have to be a member in order to purchase closed bands. The bands have the year, a number, and the size (the size should be the correct size for that species, or one size up if the birds were banded at fledging, as I do), and each year has a color assigned to it.
You can also order split plastic bands from NFSS without being a member. I like to order plastic bands from them, because they have the smaller size that I need for waxbills. You can use those soft plastic bands that are made from beads, and I love those, but they will slip right off a waxbill leg.
Redbird Products has split leg bands that are numbered, also two-color leg bands. Their website is www.redbirdproducts.com. I believe TammyS at www.justbirdstuff.com also carries leg bands now.
Just as an example, I recently bought a pair of Red-headed Parrot finches. They have NFSS bands on them, so I know the year they were born. They also had split color bands on them, so I know this breeder has a system in place to keep track of his breeding efforts. Since these birds cannot be visually sexed, he also has a DNA test done on them, and he provided their hatch date. What more could you ask? Wouldn't you feel very comfortable purchasing birds from this person?
On the other hand, I purchased two other pairs of birds from someone else. These birds are not closed banded. They have no color bands on them at all. Hello--the alarm bells should have been deafening! I let my heart carry me away, and after the fact, I have to wonder what kind of record keeping that person has. I'm not saying you should never buy a bird that doesn't have any leg bands, as there are certainly lots of them out there, but the leg bands sure take a lot of the guesswork out.
)
I just put my hand over the opening and took the nest out of the cage. my thought was i would shake them out into my net an then I could get one at atime out and band them then release them into the cage.