pet bird leg ring identification

emmisaro

Hi all

Does anyone now where to go to work out what the letters and numbers on these leg rings mean? I've tried googling and I only found US A and UK databases. I adopted a bird recently and was told he was a year old but his ring has the number 12 on it

Knine

emmisaro wrote: »

Hi all

Does anyone now where to go to work out what the letters and numbers on these leg rings mean? I've tried googling and I only found US A and UK databases. I adopted a bird recently and was told he was a year old but his ring has the number 12 on it

I know my bird has the initials of her breeder & the year of birth. She is a Parrotlet if that helps. I will have a closer look for you tomorrow. My cousin also has one & the initials & year of birth are on him too.

emmisaro

Knine wrote: »

I know my bird has the initials of her breeder & the year of birth. She is a Parrotlet if that helps. I will have a closer look for you tomorrow. My cousin also has one & the initials & year of birth are on him too.

Great thanks, I thought the number meant the year too and that's why I asked

Lemon_Drop

Hi
I used to breed Exhibition Canaries years ago.
The rings on birds legs are mostly supplied to members of the respective clubs, depending on the breed or canary. It usually gives the breeders club number along with the number relating to that bird.
Same also with Exhibition Budgies.
The colour changes from year to year so at a glance of the ring you will know how old the bird is.
Those rings can only be put on the bird at about a week old. Its a solid ring.
There are Split Rings that giving the name are not a solid band and can be put on as a marking ring at any age.

If your ring only contains a number and nothing else, is more than likely a making ring used but the breeder. That ring will more than likely be split, but some breeders that do not exhibit birds will buy rings from a ring maker.

I know its a bit confusing.

The fact your bird is a Parrotlet, a club ring would come from a foreign bird club or society. The letters of that club should be on that ring and the year, plus the number of the bird also, It does not mean the letters are the breeders initials.

Clubs would have a record of who got those rings.
But a breeder that had not intention of exhibiting birds may not be a member of a club and buys hes rings from a trader.

Here is a link to the Biggest supplier of rings in Europe, they are based in England.

http://www.ringco.co.uk/

If there is only the number 12 on the ring, then its a marking ring, and it will not give you the age of the bird.

Marking rings can be made of plastic or metal, The ring on your bird should be metal, as he would be able to bite a plastic ring off.Check that the ring is solid, and does not contain a line that would indicate that it was a split marking ring.

I know its a bit crazy, and it also hard to explain what the rings mean.

Knine

Lemon_Drop wrote: »

The fact your bird is a Parrotlet, a club ring would come from a foreign bird club or society. The letters of that club should be on that ring and the year, plus the number of the bird also, It does not mean the letters are the breeders initials.

This is not correct. It is myself & my cousin who own the Parrotlets. I am not sure what bird the OP has. I got my bird directly off the breeder who I know very well & it is definitely her initials & the hatch year.

Lemon_Drop

Knine wrote: »

This is not correct. It is myself & my cousin who own the Parrotlets. I am not sure what bird the OP has. I got my bird directly off the breeder who I know very well & it is definitely her initials & the hatch year.

Yes the breeder has an option to put her own custom ring on as opposed to a club or society ring. . Most exhibitions are governed by club rules that the bird has to be ringed with the appropriate ring . A breeder not interested in showing birds can put any ring he wants on it.

emmisaro

It's a Quaker parrot I have guys, does that make it easier to find out?

emmisaro

It specifically says 12 P&MS

emmisaro

emmisaro wrote: »

It specifically says 12 P&MS

And it's a grey plastic rather than a metal ring on my friends bird

emmisaro

Lemon_Drop wrote: »

Hi
I used to breed Exhibition Canaries years ago.
The rings on birds legs are mostly supplied to members of the respective clubs, depending on the breed or canary. It usually gives the breeders club number along with the number relating to that bird.
Same also with Exhibition Budgies.
The colour changes from year to year so at a glance of the ring you will know how old the bird is.
Those rings can only be put on the bird at about a week old. Its a solid ring.
There are Split Rings that giving the name are not a solid band and can be put on as a marking ring at any age.

If your ring only contains a number and nothing else, is more than likely a making ring used but the breeder. That ring will more than likely be split, but some breeders that do not exhibit birds will buy rings from a ring maker.

I know its a bit confusing.

The fact your bird is a Parrotlet, a club ring would come from a foreign bird club or society. The letters of that club should be on that ring and the year, plus the number of the bird also, It does not mean the letters are the breeders initials.

Clubs would have a record of who got those rings.
But a breeder that had not intention of exhibiting birds may not be a member of a club and buys hes rings from a trader.

Here is a link to the Biggest supplier of rings in Europe, they are based in England.

http://www.ringco.co.uk/

If there is only the number 12 on the ring, then its a marking ring, and it will not give you the age of the bird.

Marking rings can be made of plastic or metal, The ring on your bird should be metal, as he would be able to bite a plastic ring off.Check that the ring is solid, and does not contain a line that would indicate that it was a split marking ring.

I know its a bit crazy, and it also hard to explain what the rings mean.

Thanks for that information it's a solid plastic ring that is grey and specifically says '12 P&MS'. Maybe I shouldn't doubt that he is a year old so lol

Lemon_Drop

It is unusual to have a solid plastic bird ring, then a ring will very little information on it. I do know that pigeon rings are plastic on the outside but on the part touching the birds leg they have an aluminium band.
Normally on the ring it will give a number that is the birds number, then the initials of the club that issued the ring and also the year.

Even people that do not exhibit their birds and get rings from a supplier, will include the year and a number on the ring when they order them.

The size of the ring would be on it also, it would be in the form of a letter. The letter for a Quaker Parakeet is " P " so that might be your P on the ring.
The colour of the ring changes from year to year, 2015 - Violet
2016 - Orange
2017 - Dark Blue
2018 - Red
2019 - Black
2020 - Light Green
From 2021 the cycle restarts with Violet etc.

So no Grey on the list, but you can get Grey as a split ring.

From the information on the ring I don't think you can say how old the bird is.
Birds in their first year will keep their tail and wing feathers , they are called unflighted. Breeders can tell from those feathers that its a bird younger then a year old.
Birds over a year old moult their tail and flight feathers and when that happens its very hard to say how old it is. Some exceptions to that relates to some Parrots, when they don't mature for a few years.
Examples would be Indian Ringnecks and Plumheads where it takes a few years to get adult colours.

Knine

Ok my Parrotlet has a violet ring with breeder initials, the number 12, also what looks like 20 and the year 15. The letter M is also on it.

Lemon_Drop

Yea, that is what you would expect to see on a ring. The initials of the breeder or of the Club or Society that issued the ring.
The number 12 is one of the rings the breeder had ordered that year.
Not to sure what the 20 is. And 15 is for 2015.

The letter M is the size of the ring. which happens to be 4.4mm

The colour list I posted was the C.O.M. colour roster. Its an International Club for Cage and Aviary birds.
Some clubs do vary from that colour list, which is crazy because in order to show birds at the World Show the bird has to be wearing COM rings Violet is the colour for 2015

The Grey ring is strange, if its a solid closed ring, because its never been in any list that I know of. Also its not a colour that one would choose at random, if you decided to select a ring colour.
All the colours are not a drab because it easier to see the ring at a distance.

Knine

Yep she is a 2015 Bird having been hatched in August 2015. Interesting information thank you. Could the 20 be the number she raised that particular year?

Lemon_Drop

It would be very uncommon for a pair of birds to rear 20 young in a season. No breeder would allow it to happen really.
It would take to much out of the stock birds.
What happens is that the breeder will order the rings weeks before the breeding season, they can only be put on at a very young age, I know canaries need to be rung around 7 days old, after 10 days, you could forget about it.

So the time span is very short, he will have those rings waiting before any eggs are laid even.
Rings are sold in sets of 10, so he at least ordered 20 rings.
If he ordered 20 or more rings, then he has more than one pair breeding.

Your bird is No.20, the fact its 20 does not mean its the 20th bird rung that year, it could have been the first bird.
Rings do get mixed up very easy.
But as she was bred in August, which would be late in the breeding season, she is more than likely No.20
I think the breeder had more than one pair breeding.
Using one pair to breed 20 birds, would mean taking around 4 rounds from that pair.
Its possible. but very unlikely. Most breeders I know, would be elated with just 2 rounds. Usually the late bred birds would be weaker because their parents would be worn out. Its not really worth it , to be honest.

I think he had more than one pair at the start of the breeding season, or the ring numbers got mixed up.

Knine

Yes she had several pairs breeding & my bird was the last of the season but the first from that pair. They had bred the year before though. Some chicks were took for hand rearing. Mine being one of them. She is silly tame. Parrotlets are not easy to breed.

If you ask her for a kiss she will mimic a kissing noise or if you leave the room she does her kissing noise but if you dare put on your jacket to leave the house. All hell breaks loose & she makes a racket that sounds like I have a machine gun in my sitting room.

lolo62

I adopted a pair of canaries male and female. She has a black ring with nothing on it. He has one yellow with nothing on it and one black that says '70', then sideways and beside '13E'. Can anyone help me understand what that means?