Tag Numbers for Blue, Purple, Orange, Green, Yellow & Rare
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by wreness moderator
Black wing tags and White wing tags are the most common that you'll see on CondorWatch.
The colored tags are: Yellow, Red, Blue, Purple and Orange (and 1 Green tag. Just 1!) There are some very unusual and rare tags as well. Many factors can make reading the tags tough at times - the sun, camera angle, color fading, wear and tear and even the way the numbers are lettered - all the tags are made from scratch by human hands. This guide can help you narrow things down for a better ID. An example would be that if you see an Orange tag and you're not sure if it's a 68, you can see there is no tag Orange 68.
For complete instructions and wonderful, huge photos of the colors, tags and examples of the lettering, see the Gallery of Wing Tags.
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- ORANGE tags - black numbers, no dots or lines . . . (note. : red tags always have white numbers)
11 . . .(Bio 11). . EXAMPLE . .currently no BIO..working on it!
21 . . . (Bio 21). . . . . .EXAMPLE . . . EXAMPLE
56 . . .(Bio 156). . . EXAMPLE - right side of photo
63 . . .(Bio 63). . . . . EXAMPLE . . .EXAMPLE
79 . . . (Bio 79). . . . . EXAMPLE. . . EXAMPLE
98 . . . (Bio 98) . . . . . .EXAMPLE . . .EXAMPLE
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- BLUE tags . . . . black or white numbers
11 . . .(Bio 311), black or white numbers (has worn both tag types) . . . . EXAMPLE . . . EXAMPLE - Weird new tag looks like 77 . . . . EXAMPLE
18 . . .(Bio 318). . . EXAMPLE . . . . EXAMPLE
26 . . . (Bio 326), black numbers . . . . . EXAMPLE
28 . . .(Bio 328), black numbers . . . . EXAMPLE
60 . . .(Bio 360) . . . . . EXAMPLE. . .different EXAMPLE
64 . . .(Bio 364) . . . EXAMPLE . . . There is no White64. There are only 2 tags with 64 - Blue64 and Black64 (you know what Black looks like!)
65 . . .(Bio 365). . . EXAMPLE
69 . . .(Bio 369). . . EXAMPLE
70 . . .(Bio 370). . . . . EXAMPLE
74 . . .(Bio 374). . . EXAMPLE . . . . different tag version . . . . and another tag version. . . NOTE: There is no White74 tag - this tag looked white at one time due to fading
75 . . .(Bio 375). . . . . EXAMPLE
96 . . .(Bio 596), white numbers. (there is no other color tag with that number). EXAMPLE . . . .EXAMPLE
97 . . .(Bio 397). . . . . . EXAMPLE, black numbers . . . EXAMPLE, white numbers (in the air at left)
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- **PURPLE tags - white numbers - no dots or lines . . . . Only in 2012 & 2013 photos
4 . . . (Bio 604) . . . . .EXAMPLE
15 . . .(Bio 615). . . EXAMPLE
16 . . . (Bio 616). . . . EXAMPLE
25 . . . (Bio 625). . . . . EXAMPLE
30 . . . (Bio 630). . . EXAMPLE
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- RED Tags - white numbers (note: orange tags have black numbers)
7 . . . (Bio 107) (in 2008 tag had 1 dot). . . . EXAMPLE
11. . . (Bio 1111) (in 2008 tag had 1 dot) . . . . EXAMPLE
12 . . . (Bio 112)
25 . . . (Bio 125) . . . .EXAMPLE. . . EXAMPLE
37 . . . (Bio 137)...EXAMPLE
47 . . . (Bio 147). . . . EXAMPLE...EXAMPLE
56 . . .(Bio 156). . . EXAMPLE
61 . . . (Bio 161). . . EXAMPLE
67 . . . (Bio 167)
68 . . .Tag has no dot but is listed as having one in database so will return a "No Bio". Has not been fixed. (Bio 168). . . EXAMPLE
69 . . . . (Bio 369) . . . EXAMPLE
71 . . . (Bio 171). . . . EXAMPLE
80 . . . (Bio 180) . . . EXAMPLE
89 2-dots. . . (Bio 289) . . . EXAMPLE . . The Bio says tag has 2 dots-all pics found show no dots which then has no bio. No need to report this - it's the same bird π)
90 . . . (Bio 190). . . EXAMPLE
92 . . . (Bio 192). . . EXAMPLE
94 . . . (Bio 194). . . EXAMPLE
99 . . . (Bio 199)
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- YELLOW tags . . . . black * numbers
4. . . (Bio 204). . . EXAMPLE
6 . . . (Bio 206). . . (in 2008 tag had 2 dots). . . EXAMPLE
8 . . . (Bio 208) . . . EXAMPLE
9 . . . (Bio 209). . . EXAMPLE
13 . . . (Bio 213). . . (in 2008 tag had 2 dots) ... EXAMPLE
14 . . . (Bio 214). . . (in 2008 tag had 2 dots). . . EXAMPLE
16 . . . (Bio 216). . . (in 2008 tag had 2 dots). . . EXAMPLE . . . CLOSE UP
19 . . . (Bio 219). . . . EXAMPLE
22 . . .(Bio 222) . . . EXAMPLE
25 1-dot . . . (Bio 125)
31 . . . (Bio 231) . . . .EXAMPLE
36 . . . (Bio 236) . . . EXAMPLE
37 . . . (Bio 237). . . EXAMPLE
39 . . . (Bio 239). . . .EXAMPLE
42 . . . (Bio 242). . . EXAMPLE
47 . . . (Bio 247) . . . EXAMPLE
51 . . . (Bio 251). . . EXAMPLE
55 . . . (Bio 255). . . .EXAMPLE
62 . . . (Bio 262). . . EXAMPLE
89 . . . (Bio 289). . . EXAMPLE
92-1 dot . . . (Bio 192) . . . .EXAMPLE (no dot)
94 . . . (Bio 294). . . EXAMPLE
98 . . . (Bio 298). . . EXAMPLE
Blank . . . solid yellow, no bio. . . .EXAMPLE
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- **GREEN tag -
There is one green tag which only appeared in 2008 on 1 condor
56 βone dot (Bio 156) . . . EXAMPLE - This bird also wore tag Black 56, Orange 56 &Red56) . . . EXAMPLE 2 large pic
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Other odd tags you might see
Black A4 looks like 44 . (only in 2010 photos)
Black V1 Underline . . . EXAMPLE . . . . EXAMPLE 2 (2008-2010) ~~
White 3FW ~ ~ (Bio 483) . . This is the fledging/baby tag of who we now know as White83
Black3 FW ~ ~ . . .
Black 2 huya (2008-2009) ~ ~ (474). . .died 3/2009 at 9 months possibly from aggressive female
White Dot AKA "Ol' Domino π. . . .
Blank Yellow . solid yellow, no bio. . . .EXAMPLE 2 . . . . This is bird 665
Black 2 1-dot . . . This isn't a rare tag but has been reported as being hard to read since the dot is so close to the number and it's a "new" tag. It was decided it was Sanskrit for "What are you looking at" before we figured it out π Entering just the Black 2, without the dot, will return "no bio"
Black -7 . . . this bird was only in the wild 7 days before being killed by a predator . . . EXAMPLE
Black -8 . . Another interesting "Tag story" - this is 418 who wore this particular tag in 2008 & 2009. In 2008 & 2009 they wore tag Black 18 4 dots. Also in 2009 & 2010 they wore tag Black 18 Underline. They also wore tag White 18 in 2010. This is their permanent tag now. Some birds might have had several tags like this and some might have had one tag and only one tag. All Hail to those making and keeping these tag records straight!
Black tags -7 and -8 were hatched one day apart which is why they had the same tag system.
Condor Trivia: Birds that are released close together time-wise and so are the same age are called "cohorts".
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