I'm becoming curious as to the study being done on crows in the Seattle area, specifically around north Lake Washington. We have been seeing an increasing number of banded crows over the last month.

The first banded crow we saw had a blue band on top, silver band on the bottom on the left leg. The right leg had a white band on top with a red band on the bottom. I suspect the silver band on the left leg has the numbers but we have been unable to get a view with the binoculars long enough to make anything out. This crow is part of group that frequents our yard but does not hang around here all day. They appear to move about quite a bit.

The crows that hang around most of the day now show the following bands:

- Left leg yellow top, silver bottom. Right leg copper band that appears to have two rivets holding it together. Copper band has a lot of etching (stamped) but the crow is so skittish we have not been able to make anything out.

- Both legs with yellow bands (seen two crows with this). One has a silver band on the bottom of the left leg.

- One crow with yellow band on right leg

- Left leg yellow top, white bottom

- One crow with what appears to be white paint spots on the underside of both wings. One large spot per wing out toward the end of the wings.

Anyone know what the study is for?

Bruce McKenzie
Kenmore, WA
mailto:mckenzie at accessone.com