Found a ring on a pheasant? Here's what to do

You have just shot a pheasant or a partridge with a ring on its leg. In two minutes, this guide tells you what kind of ring it is and who to report it to.

What kind of ring is it?

Ring engraved with an address: MNHN scheme or federation

A ring engraved with an address (“MUSEUM PARIS”, “FNC”…) and a number, often in bare metal, belongs to the official scientific ringing schemes run by the MNHN (the French National Museum of Natural History) or to federation monitoring. It is not reported here: go to bagues.chasseurdefrance.com (in French), the service French hunters use for these rings.

Coloured aluminium ring or plastic wing tag: a breeder's ring

A leg ring in coloured aluminium (orange, green, blue, yellow… or plain aluminium) bearing a number but no engraved address, or a numbered coloured plastic wing tag, is a breeder's mark. A game breeder fitted it before the bird was released. If the bird comes from the Gibis game farm (Chatte, Isère, France), this is the site that receives it: bagues.gibis.fr. Not sure where the bird came from? Report it anyway: a ring that isn't one of ours is simply set aside, with no consequences for you.

Report it in 3 steps

Photograph the ring. One sharp photo, on the leg or once removed. If the number runs all the way round the ring, take two or three shots: the automatic reading pieces them together.
Check the number, the species and the municipality. The number read from the photo is filled in for you; correct it if needed, then choose the species and the municipality where the bird was shot. Name, phone number and email are optional — leave an email address if you would like to receive your photos and a thank-you.
Send it, even without a signal. You only need to have opened bagues.gibis.fr once with a connection. Confirm. Out in the woods with no coverage, the report waits in a queue on your phone and sends itself as soon as you are back in range.

Report a ring now

What happens to your report

Your report goes to the Fédération départementale des chasseurs (FDC), the hunters' federation of the department concerned, which checks and validates it. It is then linked to the release the ring comes from: the ACCA (approved communal hunting association) or the shoot that released the bird sees the date, the municipality and the distance covered — never who you are.

Only validated reports go into the public statistics. These statistics are anonymous: no site names, no ring numbers, no hunters. The finest level of public detail is the department.

Why report it

A recovered ring is a data point: it shows how long the bird survived after release and how far away it was shot. Taken together, these reports give the recovery rate and the dispersal for each hunting ground — the two figures federations and ACCAs need to judge how well a release worked and to adjust the next one.

For the breeder, it is also the only feedback from the field on the quality of the birds. A report takes less than two minutes; without it, the information is lost along with the ring.