Orange Winged Amazon legband

[dreamin_sqaw]

Hi all,
New to the forum here.

My question is this......

My OWA has a leg band, closed silver color, it simply has RM 8 WA on it, the WA is turned sideways, from what I have learned thus far , that means Washington.

I am hearing different things, that is the breeder band and I cant really get info about him from it OR search the net.
Searching the net , I have found nothing. I did a google search for Amazon breeders in WA using RM on their bands, still nothing.

My goal is to learn his age and any health history I can locate. I was given him by a cousin which had him for a little over a year. He got him from another cousin before that. ( one which I don't know) so I am not 100% sure if I am his 3rd home or if there were more before the unknown cousin had him.

He was almost 100% caged when I got him. Now he is only in a bedtime. And bonded with me perfectly. I would just love to learn as much as possible about his history.

I was also told, they bond with one gender more than the other, I don't find this to be true thus far. My cousin that passed him to me was a 75yr old male. Im a female , he loves me and trust me, but my husband cant get him to warm up to him yet. He works on tricks with me already, only had him a couple of weeks.
He is my first parrot. so I am learning still.

any help ?

[marie83]

If you have a parrot society over there it might be worth contacting them or posting on their forums.

[Pajarita]

You are correct, the 'opposite gender' thing is a myth. Try the companies that make bird bands (there aren't that many so it's not impossible) and ask if they make bands for a parrot breeder that identifies himself with those initials. They will not give you his information but they might be willing to pass your info to him so he can contact you. You can also ask bird clubs in Washington State if they know of such a breeder... He might not be known because if the number that identifies the bird is just an 8, it means he had only produced 8 birds up until then.

Unfortunately, there is no central registry for bird breeders and their IDs in America.

[dreamin_sqaw]

If you have a parrot society over there it might be worth contacting them or posting on their forums.

I will see if I can locate info to find out if there is one around here. Im in NC. His band has a WA on it so I am assuming it is Washington

thanks so much for the reply.

[LadySaphine]

My GCC, Peanut, we got from a pet store. Her band is FL something. When we got her, they gave us a certificate with her hatch date and the aviary that bred her (don't remember it off the top of my head). I googled it, turns out she was bred in Jay, Florida. Your bird, since you are his 3rd owner, may have originated in a pet store too. Or maybe one of his previous owners moved from WA?

[dreamin_sqaw]

Actually I am the third owner as I know. were they more? possible. I have ran a google search on everything I can think of , even just the band info. Nothing! I don't know how to find breeders in WA that use the letter "R" on their bands....this is extremely frustrating.

His band has : RM 8 WA

im at a loss now. all I want is to know his age. I wish some type of regulations were created so that the band can be researched! A database of some sorts so all bands can and are required to be listed.

thanks to you all for the advise

[Polarn]

We have no regulations per say, well we do for birds listed in cites apendix A, but no regulations as to where the band comes from as long as it contains an identification number.

However pretty much anyone I know of that breeds birds buy their bands from the same place here in sweden, this is the society where local birdclubs etcetera becomes members, so part of your members fee for your local club goes to this bigger society and your automatically a member there as well and receives a paper a few times a year with articles, info about meetings etcetera. Also being a member of this society allows you to purchase closed legbands from them.

Now the great thing about this is that you can call the local ringmaster and state your birds number and you get the information on when the ring was bought and who bought the ring... this however still requires you to contact the person who bought the ring in order to verify if the bird was bred by this person and the birds age (a ring could have been laying around for years before used, and an unused ring may have changed owner if one person was out of bands when a clutch hatched).
However even if most chicks raised here has the "swedish" bands some doesnt, and the major reason for this isnt that the bands are expensive to buy in sweden or anything but it simply has to do with avoiding paying tax for any sold chicks pretty much. Or because they do not want to be registered and having people call them becouse somene has a bird with their band on it (this occationally happens with the smaller birds when they are sold through a petstore, where the breeder never actually had any innitial contact with the birds first "home" whatsoever...

Anyways just thought I'd say how it works here, and what sides there is to it. I mean there are good n bad in everything... But if enough people miss a registry where you can see when the bands were bought etcetera it may be worth making a bird society that spas across US and work together with clubs etcetera in order to form such a registry and get breeders to buy their rings throught that society. a shitload of work and dedication but probably not impossible.

As far as a registry of owners we do have a registry that you voluntarily register in, meaning that when I look at a bird I check there for their ringnumber to see who is listed as the current contact person and if I'm interested in buying this particular bird I make sure to check with that person (if not the same as seller) that he/she actually doesnt still own the bird. And any bird I have I make sure to register in this registry with my phonenumber too it, this however is an easier project, the only really hard thing here is to get it big enough for it to be viable to use by lawinforcement / vets etcetera when lost birds are found...