I wonder if banders have ever considered Teflon-coated bands. Seriously.

Marc Hoffman
Tweeters "at" dartfrogmedia "dot"com
www.SongbirdPhoto.com

On Saturday, April 7, 2012, tony m wrote:

> **
> Regarding banding of birds. One aspect.
> I breed racing pigeons and have banded countless baby pigeons. The bands
> are put on when birds are young and feet still small. The bird grows and
> the leg has enough room for the band to stay loose.
> I'd learned that as birds get older their legs sometimes get bigger and
> the band gets very tight. Iexperienced this and did what the veteran
> breeders told me which was to cut off the band.
> The next time I saw it the bird was not so old and decided to inspect a
> little closer.
> What I found was that the natural shedding of skin over the years had
> stuck to the inside of the band. Once it started all future skin, shed or
> rubbed built up on the band. This, in time, did make the band very tight
> and cause the leg to swell. Even though the birds took regular baths it
> remained. It became quite a solid inner ring. The solution, i used some
> kind of pick, even a tooth pick to gradually scrape it loose. Even the bent
> end of a paper clip. This did the job and I've never cut off another band.
> Birds in the wild, however, don't get this personal attention.
> I wonder if bird banders are aware or have ever even seen this phenomenon.
> I welcome any and all comments.
>
> Tony Moares
>
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