Bracelets

Photo & Text Copyright 2007 Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved, including reproduction or republishing.

You could almost call Seattle "Crow City" instead of Jet City or Emerald City, there are so many crows about. But this one, spotted in Belltown, is special. I hadn't spotting a banded crow since last summer in the Central District. I had photographed a crow which was sitting on a roof. It wasn't until I uploaded the photo that I noticed colorful leg bands. I Googled "crow Seattle leg band" and found out about an ongoing University of Washington study. If you ever spot a banded crow, UW researchers ask observers to pay attention to the colors and placement of bands on each leg and to report the info via their website. These crows were caught as babies, banded, and released. They are studied for their movement and for disease research.