mghodowlaPigeon ring number: what each part means
In short: How to read a racing pigeon ring number: country code, club, year and serial number, and how to avoid typing mistakes.
The ring is a pigeon's ID. Its number goes into the pedigree, your records, race lists and sale adverts, so it must be identical everywhere.
How the number is built
A typical number looks like PL-0123-24-512: country code, club or region number, year of birth (24 means 2024) and the bird's serial number. Other countries use other codes, such as NL, BE or GB, and the layout of the remaining parts can differ, so always copy the number exactly from the ring.
Common mistakes
- 1 and 7, or 6 and 8, confused in handwriting,
- leading zeros dropped from the club number,
- the wrong year around the turn of a season,
- a missing country code on imported birds.
How to avoid them
Enter the number once and reuse it everywhere. In pedigree software the ring number is the key: you search by it, and the pedigree, results and pairings hang off it. When you import a pedigree from a photo, check the recognised numbers against the original.
Stop retyping pedigrees. Pigeclub imports them from a photo or a PDF. See Pigeclub.
Questions and answers
What does the year on a pigeon ring mean?
The pigeon's year of birth, written as two digits, for example 24 for 2024.