Gallery of Wing Tags

Overview

This page displays a variety of wing tags to better familiarize you with the ways in which fonts, colors, and patterns can appear in photos. We have tried to gather examples from many different lighting conditions and angles, including photos that volunteers indicated were confusing on the Talk pages. We will continue to add to this gallery as volunteers comment on photos.

As you will see from the examples, the colors on the actual wing tags do not necessarily match the colors on the Condor Watch entry form.

Below are the most common wing tag colors you will see. On the bottom of the black tags, you can see the dots referred to on the classification page. For individuals that wear dotted tags, the number of dots indicates the hundreds digit of their ID number. Most of the dotted tags are black with white numbers.

Old wing tags used by Ventana Wildlife Society. Photo courtesy of VWS http://www.ventanaws.org/species_condors_fieldnotes/2011.htm

 

---

Black

Black tags are very common. They always have white numbers. They sometimes have dots or underlines. Only black tags have underlines.

Some examples of black tags are:

Black30, 3 dots

Black13, 3 dots

Black51

Black25Underline

 

Red

Red tags are common. They always have white numbers (this can be useful for distinguishing red tags from orange tags). A few red tags have dots.

Some examples of red tags are:

Red7

Red90

Another view of Red7

 

Orange

Orange tags are uncommon. They always have black numbers, and none has dots. They were only used at the Southern California release sites (we will do a future blog post on the different release sites and you will likely start to recognize each locale in photos).

The only orange wing tag numbers are:

• 21 (Bird=21)
• 56 (Bird=156)
• 63 (Bird=63)
• 79 (Bird=79)
• 98 (Bird=98)

Here are some examples:

Orange98

Orange63

Good contrast of red tag (left, Red61) and orange tag (right, Orange79)

 

White

White tags are common. They always have black numbers. In 2008, a few white tags had dots.

Some examples of white tags are:

Both visible tags are white (77 and 78)

White31

 

Yellow

Yellow tags are common. They always have black numbers. In 2006-2008, a few yellow tags had dots.

Some examples of yellow tags are:

Yellow6

Yellow62 (with Blue28)

Good contrast of Yellow (on left, 6) and White (on right, 49)

Good contrast of Yellow (on left, 16) and White (on right, 80)

 

Green 

Green tags are extremely uncommon. In fact, for the dates of our photos, green only appeared in 2008 and only on one condor: condor 156. Her green tag had a 56 on it with 1 dot. Let us know if you see this tag and we will add it here!

 

Blue

Blue tags are somewhat uncommon. They are a bit confusing because they can have black or white numbers. In 2008, one blue tag had a dot (61).

The only blue wing tag numbers are:

• 11 (Bird=311), black or white numbers (has worn both tag types)
• 18 (Bird=318), white numbers [note this one was left off of earlier versions of the gallery)
• 26 (Bird=326), black numbers
• 28 (Bird=328), black numbers
• 60 (Bird=360)
• 61 (Bird=161)
• 64 (Bird=364), white numbers
• 65 (Bird = 365), black numbers
• 69 (Bird=369)
• 70 (Bird=370)
• 74 (Bird=374)
• 75 (Bird=375)
• 96 (Bird=596), white numbers
• 97 (Bird=397)

Here are some examples of blue tags:

Blue96

Blue11

Blue64, photo courtesy of Ventana Wildlife Society

Great example of the 2 different blue colors you might see: Blue28 on the far left and Blue96 on the far right (also visible are Purple4, Black60, and White80)

Bird on left has purple tag. Bird on right has blue tag

 

Purple

Purple tags are somewhat uncommon. They always have white numbers, and none has dots. They only appear on in 2012 and 2013 photos.

The only purple wing tag numbers are:

• 4   (Bird=604)
• 15 (Bird=615)
• 16 (Bird=616)
• 25 (Bird=625)
• 27 (Bird=627)
• 30 (Bird=630)
• 31 (Bird=631)
• 46 (Bird=646)
• 50 (Bird=650)
• 52 (Bird=652)
• 63 (Bird=663)
• 64 (Bird=664)

Here are some examples of purple tags:

Purple25

Purple4

 

---

Many at once

A wide range of wing tag colors can be seen in this photo:

A wide range of wing tag colors can be seen in this photo:
Yellow62, Orange63, Black99, Red47, Yellow14, and Purple30

 

---

 

Other

Finally, there are a very few oddball tags that don’t fit the normal pattern. One is the tag worn by 514 during part of 2010, which reads A4, but can look very much like 44 at certain angles. Here are some examples:

BlackA4

BlackA4

There is also a black underlined tag with V1 on it in 2008-2010, a white tag with 3FW on it in 2009, and a black tag with 2 huya on it in 2008-2009. Let us know if you see any of those!

Update: V1 has been found by eagle-eyed Condor Watcher miltonbosch. Kudos!