The numbers and letters on your birdie’s leg band can give you information about your bird. There are two kinds of leg bands that are relative to us as bird owners:

– The closed leg bands that we see on birds indicate that it has been captive bred. This band is an unbroken ring that is slid onto the small leg of hatchling and becomes a permanent fixture once the bird has reached maturity.
– The open band, a rounded split ring that is placed on the leg of an adult bird, indicates that it was at one point detained in an importation station. A bird with an open band was either brought into the country as a wild caught bird prior to the importation ban, or was transported as a pet from another country and stayed in the importation station during a period of quarantine.

Unfortunately, the closed bands we see on most companion birds do not always carry the same information, but major bird’s organizations have the following info: organization ID code, the breeder’s ID code, the year of hatching and an ID# assigned to the bird may or may not all appear on a band. For example all our birds for the year of 2014 have leg bands: ABS-SM-2014-X (X-number of the bird for the year)

S&M Aviary uses ABS close leg bands, you can order them at:
http://www.abs1.org/bands13a.htm

You can also order BAA close leg bands:
http://www.budgerigarassociation.org/forms.htm

S&M Aviary uses L&M colored open leg bands to identify split birds, you can order them at:
http://www.lmbirdlegbands.com

Remember – It is VERY important to band you chicks!