Please start sending your posts to texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx TEXBIRDers, The sole use of banding codes like this are discouraged on TEXBIRDS. If you are going to use them the recommend way is to use the birds full name on first use with the code in parenthesis then use the banding code. For example: Black-tailed Godwit (BTGD) then use BTGD. In the post below we can assume the post was about the Brazoria County Black-tailed Godwit, but the code used is actually the code for Bar-tailed Godwit. > > The BTGO was in the close pond at the usual place at 4:30 pm today, the 22nd. > In this case if someone is searching the archives for posts on the Black-tailed Godwit even if they thought to use the banding code they wouldn't find it. Out of context someone would also think there has been a report of Bar-tailed Godwit. The 4 letter code system has a lot of collisions in forming the codes. There are many collisions like this where two birds have the same code if you make up codes from the basic pattern. The banding codes have about as many exceptions as they have "regular" codes. That's why I recommend they not be used on TEXBIRDS. Using my recommend style will allow the convenience of a 4 letter code and the context to interpret the code either correct or incorrect. -- David Sarkozi, LIst Owner TEXBIRDS Houston, TX (713) 412-4409 twitter ID dsarkozi Edit your Freelists account settings for TEXBIRDS at //www.freelists.org/list/texbirds