Yellow-variant House Finch. Banded.

[cairnstone]

I have a male Yellow-variant House Finch hanging around my feeders today. He is banded. As you can see he has a blue band on his right leg and a green one on his left leg that reads CCAC 271. It would be really cool to find out exactly who he is.

[Reuven_M]

Report it at reportband.gov and you will find out about the bird's history, although it may take quite a while (months) to hear back

[cairnstone]

Thank you for the response Reuven, but when I try to submit the band number at that site it says invalid band number. Perhaps there is another number there I did not catch.

[Reuven_M]

Maybe try just emailing them all the relevant information (the email is on that site)?

[John]

Those don't look like government bands, so I don't think you'll get anything from reportband.gov

This is likely an escaped cage bird.

[cairnstone]

I've never heard of a caged House Finch before.

[John]

Me neither.  I would just expect to see a standard metal band on a wild banded bird.

And it would explain the colour.

[cairnstone]

CCAC comes up as Canadian Council On Animal Care. I wonder if this is the bander? I do get Yellow-variant House Finches from time to time but never a banded one.

[cairnstone]

The banded finch is still here. He sings up a storm. I hope he sticks around.

[cairnstone]

He is still here and very vocal. I have got his whole band numbers now. He has a vertical CCAC on the band and a vertical 14 on the band (I am guessing that's his birth year). Then he has a horizontal 271 on the band. I have fired off a bunch of emails to try and identify him, but with no luck. I get about 1 Yellow variant House Finch per year. I am guessing I will not likely find out who this guy is. His breastbone appears to be getting bare which I hope is molting rather than some affliction.

[Paul O'Toole]

This ontario banding station may be able to point you in the right direction, see contact info on top left corner of site page.

http://www.peptbo.ca/

[cairnstone]

Thanks all for the replies. I have contacted several bird banding organizations and none could help. Oh well, at least I have a Yellow variant House Finch sticking around. All the others I have had here never stayed more than a day.