Leg band Translation?

[Finch_Breeder]

Hey everyone,
I'm curious to know what these letters and numbers mean on Cocky's leg band. I read it as: WCB 23 1 40
I'm guessing WCB is the breeder? But I'm stuck with the numbers.. Maybe they could mean a date of some sort..?
Any help would be much appreciated
Thanks Guys,
-Mike.

 

[Echo]

Unfortunately some breeders do not follow the norm. In the US, it usually is: breeder's initials, state, year of hatch and number specific to that bird. Australia might have a different system.

In your case, it seems like all the numbers are specific to that breeder only?

However, wild caught birds will also have letters and numbers specific to the quarantine station they came through.

 

[crimson]

I'll take a guess here.....the initials are the breeders initials or the initials of the aviary.
23 could be the day it was born, 1 may be the month, and 40 could be the number of babies....not sure if that sounds right or not.

normally the year is underlined, are any of the numbers underlined??

 

[Echo]

Very unlikely that it would be the day or even the month of hatch. When you buy the bands, you need to buy a minimum of 25 and it takes a couple of weeks to get them. It would be very hard to know the exact day of hatch of your next 25 birds. That's also one reason some breeders don't even put the year on them, so they can use them the following year.

 

[crimson]

yup your right, I'm just tired and not thinking straight
but when every chick is born here, I know the exact day it was born and within a few hours!

you can also buy bands individually or in groups of 10 or more, depending on the type of bird you are buying it for.

 

[Blackie]

I have a Sulphur Crested Cockatoo in Adelaide that has the leg band with WCB 21 9 6 5. I would be interested to hear if you ended up finding any more information on this. The 21 looks like it is stamped inside a box dont know if this will give any clues to deciper it.

 

[MonicaMc]

I think it's unlikely that WCB would stand for a quarantine station. We are talking about Australia here, which has a no import/export rule on parrots!


Probably the best way to try and track down the breeder is to contact pet stores that sell birds as well as breeders and ask them if they are familiar with the leg band code.