Jeff has noticed that he is encountering the same crow repeatedly.

I warned him that the crow might also recognize him, and went off to Google a couple of things.

First off, I found contact information for James Ha, a University of Washington psych prof who, among other things, has studied crows.

I dropped him a line pointing out Jeff’s post, and asked if the banded crow was a part of his study, and furthermore, if the banding represents multiple captures.

Here’s his reply:

Mike,

The bird was banded only once, but was banded so that we could identify
each unique individual so the pattern of bands identifies this animal.

I can tell by the position of the aluminum Fish and Wildlife
Service-registered band that this bird was not banded by us but by the
other major crow researcher in the United States, also at UW, John
Marzluff and his lab. Check out:

http://courses.washington.edu/vseminar/main.htm#3

Cheers,
Jim Ha

And off I went. Lo and behold, this key and accompanying instructions point to a sighting report form!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Jeff had read through another set of tagging info, and according to the rules seen therein, noted that the crow might be known as RB-GYS, for the banding order on his or her legs.

Since Jeff is assigning the male pronoun, I’ll follow suit. However, I’ll go one better. The bird’s name is now Robgys, [rob-ghis] as far as I am concerned.

This concludes my initial bird post of the day.