Need some info on a leg band, any help?

[Anoble1]

Hi,

 

I recently (about 8 months ago) got a rescued a Grey and am trying to find out how old he is. He has a leg band, but i cannot find any information on it via web. It says: TRM AL 53

 

I assume the TRM is the abbreviated name and AL is the state? And 53?? Not sure about that. I found something about 53 may mean April 2006?

 

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[Dave007]

Hi,

 

I recently (about 8 months ago) got a rescued a Grey and am trying to find out how old he is. He has a leg band, but i cannot find any information on it via web. It says: TRM AL 53

 

I assume the TRM is the abbreviated name and AL is the state? And 53?? Not sure about that. I found something about 53 may mean April 2006?

 

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

 

Unfortunately, it's almost impossible to trace legband information unless a person knows the actual breeder. If the bird is no more than 2 weeks old, a closed band is put on the bird and the breeder gives a person the informtion concerning that number. The band is called a *closed band* and can't be removed by a person because of possible injury. The other type of band is called a *open band* which can be put on the bird anytime the owner wants so matter what the age is. It can also be taken off quickly. The info on the bnd caan be anything the owner wants. The numbers TRM have nothing to do with a state. The next 2 letters only refer to a quarantine station in the US and some are no longer in business. They were run by the USDA. The last 2 numbers may have something to do with the number of birds that were sold in any particular year.

There was never any quarantine station located in AL.

 

Your best bet is to look up general info on the net concerning legbands but I doubt that you'll find any particular listings for states ond year of birth.

[Anoble1]

So, most likely this bird was born overseas, and was quarantined here in the US?

[Dave007]

So, most likely this bird was born overseas, and was quarantined here in the US?

 

Yes, that's posssible but just inderstand that doing that was legally stopped in 1992. No more exported birds were allowed into the country un;less except when thbe bird was put into official quaurantine for months and that only happened when the person could prove legal ownershp on the bird. But even then, the age of the bird remained unknown. Official quantine only had to do with various diseases. Official quarantine is extremely expensive and depending on the state ,quarantine could last as much as 2 mt. Also, very few airlines transport birds from one country to another. It's even hard to transport a bird from one state to another. Quarantine is still required.

Look at th band--if you see no cut marks on it, that means it's a closed band and the bird was hand reared by someone in the US or came from a plce that breeds lots of birds and sells them tio pet stores. If you see a cut mark that means that the oner put any info they wanted. I'll give you an example---I f I had a grey with no band, I could buy an open band and put cerain info {lets say year 08}oniy which would tell the potention buyerr that the bird was 6 yrs old BUT I know for a fct that the bird is actually 15 yrs old. There's no way to prove I was lying.

I doubt that your bird came from thattime when exporting was legal. Ghat'd so many years ago.