FINCHforum

Today I spent time in the room with the owl finches. I cleaned their cages and sat and watched them. I had been trying not to bother them much with the exception of changing the paper, food and water since we got the in early August. I would come into the room to watch them but at a distance.

I managed to get a look at their bands today, I am assuming I have unrelated pairs.

Pair "A"

Male has a black solid band on his right leg

Female has a solid black (close to the body) and a second band in blue (in front of the solid black) on her left leg. She also has a solid blue band with a date/letters on her right leg

Pair "B"

Male has a turquiose on his right

Female has a red on her left

Any ideas in regards to the meaning of the 3 bands on female "A"?

If the bands are plain colours with no engravings - they mean only whatever the breeder wanted them to mean. Hard to say if they represent unrelated pairs or not.

The only printed band is on the female with 3 bands. To be on the safe side if both pairs produce and I want to make unrelated pairs I may get an unrelated male and female, let them produce and pair unrelated offspring that way...anyone with young unrelated owl chicks in Florida.

In the mean time I will try to get a hold of the breeder and see if he can give me some insight on the banding mystery, the secret code!