That is because bird banding codes are based on earlier known common names so that birds banded in years gone by are not confused with birds banded recently. Perhaps The Tufted Titmouse was previously known as the Eastern Tufted Titmouse (it could at any rate be separated from the Black-crested Race). Bird banding codes for Baltimore Oriole should now make sense (again), but the Blue-headed Vireo's banding code is SOVI. Go figure. =========================================================================== On 4/12/99 8:48 AM Ellen Paul said >Now, even that can be a problem because while there are official common >names, not everyone uses them or knows them. You would need to know that >what we commonly call a Titmouse or a Tufted Titmouse is actually an >Eastern Tufted Titmouse. ETTI. That is news to me. According to the A.O.U. Checklist of North American Birds, seventh edition, there are the following Titmice: Bridled Titmouse Oak Titmouse Juniper Titmouse Tufted Titmouse While there are two groups of the last (Tufted Titmouse and Black-crested Titmouse), the former is not named "Eastern" according to the AOU. Elliot Kirschbaum Baltimore, MD USA mailto:ekirschb@bcpl.net ====================================================== ___ _________/ \_________ Home (304) 292-5072 /- - - - - O O - - - - -\ Work (304) 293-4832 \________'\_v_/`________/ ext. 4456 /_|_|_\ ^ ^ John B. Churchill, M.S. GIS Analyst West Virginia University Natural Resources Analysis Center __ ______ \___/ \__^_ [ ) o\ `__]____)'--'* ]_ ]_ Support Evolution, ... destroy a weakling ! http://www.nrac.wvu.edu/users/jbc/ ======================================================