In recent years (within the USA) I have not heard of parrots in private (for profit) aviculture using tattoos for bird identification. In particular birds that are rather common in aviculture. Instead they use closed bands. Do AZA zoos regularly (in recent years) use tattoos under the bird's wing as a form of identification instead of using a closed band? Also, have you heard about private aviculturist using tattoos?
Most common way for identification of parrots in captivity is a closed ring band and for the more rare species a chip in the breast muscle. These are both quite safe an less invasive as a tattoo.
I'd never heard of tattooing parrots before but apparently it is done. It must not be common though because a google search prefers to mainly respond with hits regarding tattoos of parrots (on peoples' skin) and tattooing parrot cichlids. I guess it is cheaper than microchipping and not as easy to remove as a leg ring, but seems a pretty silly idea overall to me.
I know some examples of very rare species with a tattoo but all are quite old birds. With microchipping being widely available for a decent price the need for it actually disappeared. Personally I think the method is too invasive with alternative options available.
Maybe, I should be a bit more forthcoming about why I am interest in this question. On a different message board, a new member claims to have come across an unweaned parrot in an unusual way. The only clue to the chick's origin is a tattoo under the wing and no closed band. I have not seen the bird only read an account of what is happening. Because of the tattoo, I thought the bird may have been originally stolen from a zoo in the USA. The original thief would have been worried about getting caught, or realized that an unweaned bird was to much to care for, then dumped the bird at a dog/cat rescue. But even that sounds weird because in a USA zoo I would guess that so few people would has access to an unweaned chick.
tattooing an unweaned chick seems pretty reprehensible. A zoo would fit a closed band on a chick. Microchips are put in weaned birds (do chicks get microchipped? I don't know). Are Goffin's that rare that the assumption would be it was stolen from a zoo? The suggestion the person made about a travelling discount vet doing tattoos on parrot chicks just seems really bizarre. To me he seems genuine as a poster though (i.e. the story is all weird but the person himself seems genuine).
