I have always been worried of the zip tie tightening around the leg if it is put directly around the tarsus and also the potential negative effects that might come about if the bird was lost with this setup. That has been my personal feeling about this method. Then again I am paranoid to the extreme. Funny thing about that, it seems the more precautions you take the weirder stuff Murphy throws at you... We all do things differently for sure. The funny thing is, I thought you were criticizing the method insinuating that's what I was doing LOL.