Forwarding this on behalf of Mark Shieldcastle: Just to correct some miss-information on the list-serve: There are specific protocols for swan collars by species that can be reviewed on the Bird Banding Lab website at www.pwrc.usgs.gov/bbl/ In short, Trumpeter swans have green, red or yellow collars while Tundra swans are assigned gray, black, or blue collars. Ohio has never used black collars. We started with green collar with white lettering on the reintroduction project and are now using yellow with black lettering. Codes are all 3 digit (except some very old 4 digit collars not in this region). Codes should read as follows (L=Letter, N=Number) LNN, NLN, NNL. Tundra swan codes are mostly 4 digit but can be 3 as well. They generally read LNNN, LLN, LNL, NLL. Hope this clears up the question. For more info visit the BBL web site or contact the Division of Wildlife. Mark Shieldcastle Project Leader, Wetland Wildlife Research ODNR, Division of Wildlife Crane Creek Wildlife Research Station 13229 W SR 2 Oak Harbor, OH 43449 419-898-0960 x 23 [log in to unmask] ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]