Banded pigeons . What do they mean ?

[poultrykeeper08]

All the pigeons i bought at the auction or at a breeders house have bands on them . What do they mean

Here are some examples of the bands

Fantail - NPA 8 07 BU 2972
homer -IFS 2002 370
modena-NPA 9 06 MJ 619
German Beuty -NPA 10 07 FL 583

Any info would be great

 

[Pine Grove]

NPA stands for National Pigeon Association
The first #'s are the month and year hatched, then the breeders initials and band #...IFS I think is a racing club.......

 

[gamebirdsonly]

They have a web site for the racing ones. it will telll you who it belongs to and from where it's from.

 

[deerman]

Yes the NPA bands are for show birds, they must be banded to be enter in the Shows.

IFA is a national racing club , the other is AU and your birds needs these bands to race in the clubs races.

Band can only be put on the birds around 10 days old.
Band will give year of hatch, and number that can be tracked back to the breeder.