Expert: Roger Lederer - 8/9/2007

Question
I live in Groveland, CA 95321 Elev: ~3000' and was bird watching on Monday 8/6 and came across a very tame but feral Pigeon. I was able to get close enough to get some photos of the bands on his legs. One of the bands is Orang'ish and the other is white with some numbers and letters on it. I can only read a few of the numbers but I was thinking someone who knows what to look for would be able to decipher it better than I. The numbers are 1505 in larger font size than the letters. There are two rows of only a few letters. I can read the top row AL(?) and WS(?) both second letters are questionable. I would like to know what this all means and why this Pigeon was banded ect.. Thanks for your time
Jamie


Answer
Banded pigeons are usually racing pigeons. The American Racing Pigeon Union registered bands have a specific format.

Band numbers are in a series of letters & numbers as shown below.

EXAMPLE= the band may read-->AU 99 ABC 1234

(1) - AU - is the national organization that has registered the bird, in this case the American Racing Pigeon Union, Inc. The band can also have IF, CU, ATB, NBRC, or IPB in this position.

(2) - 99 - is the year the bird was hatched and banded/registered.

(3) - ABC - is a letters representing the pigeon club the band is registered to (no two clubs have the same registration letters - and they have one, two or three letters).

(4) - 1234 - A one-up number unique to each pigeon based on the club letters. Now that you understand how to read the band, you can go back to our band list to find the club that the bird you found belongs to.

NOTE: (PERSONALIZED BANDS) Sometimes the band may just have the owners name, phone and/or address on it that you may call or write them.

I don't know what WS stands for; maybe the owner's name.