This page is for anyone who hunts in Alpes-Maritimes and finds a ring on a pheasant or partridge: where to report it, who validates it, and what is known about the department. The page is also meant for the ACCAs, France's approved communal hunting associations, and for the Alpes-Maritimes hunters' federation (FDC 06): it shows what is published and what never is. On the administrative map, department 06 belongs to the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region; its prefecture is Nice.
Validating recoveries in Alpes-Maritimes
For department 06, no federation uses RingFollow at present. Reporting remains possible and useful: the recovery is recorded, then reviewed by a federation; GIBIS plays no part in the validation. If the bird comes from a release in a department whose federation is registered, that federation validates the recovery; otherwise the report stays on file for Alpes-Maritimes.
Reporting a ring found in Alpes-Maritimes
- Open bagues.gibis.fr on your phone and photograph the ring close up, in good light.
- Enter the municipality, Nice or any other in the department; no municipality is ever shown publicly.
- If the bird carries a wing tag rather than a leg ring, say so at the same step, together with the species.
- Send it. For 24 hours you can still remove or add a photo.
Further reading
Species, delivery and release planning are a matter for the breeder: see game birds for restocking and red-legged and grey partridges on gibis.fr.
Recoveries and reports in Alpes-Maritimes
- No validated recovery has been located in Alpes-Maritimes on RingFollow so far.
- No report linked to the department is awaiting validation.
- Nationwide, RingFollow records 85 ringed releases (3,592 birds) and 16 validated recoveries, across 5 participating federations.
What next?
The report is recorded as soon as it arrives, with the photo and the municipality given. The ring number is then matched against known releases; if one took place in a department whose federation is registered, that federation validates the recovery. If no release matches, the report is kept under department 06 and stays out of the public totals. The public only sees totals per department; points on the national map are rounded to about 1 km.
Alpes-Maritimes and its neighbours
Its neighbours are Var to the south-west and Alpes-de-Haute-Provence to the west. All its neighbours belong, like the department itself, to the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Among its neighbours, the share of forests and semi-natural areas ranges from 69% (Var) to 79% (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence), against 86% here (CORINE Land Cover 2018). The nearest department whose federation tracks its rings on RingFollow is Isère, about 190 km to the north-west as the crow flies between department centres. Next come Haute-Corse (about 240 km) and Corse-du-Sud (about 275 km).
What a reported ring is for
ACCAs and federations fund releases; rings are the only way to know what they yield in the field. Consolidated figures are public on the Statistics page, by department.
The Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region and RingFollow
The other departments of the region are Hautes-Alpes, Var, Vaucluse, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and Bouches-du-Rhône. None of the six departments in the region has a federation tracking its rings on RingFollow at present (see the Federations page). The share of forests and semi-natural areas (86%) is higher here than in any other department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region.
Key facts about Alpes-Maritimes
The European CORINE Land Cover inventory (2018) puts forests and semi-natural areas at 86% of the area and artificial surfaces at 10%. The rest is mostly agricultural areas (4%). With 1,128,418 inhabitants (INSEE, 2022 population count) on about 4,300 km², the density is roughly 262 inhabitants per km²; the department has 163 municipalities. With the share of agricultural areas at 4%, the department is in the bottom five of the 96 departments of metropolitan France. Its arrondissements are administered from Nice (prefecture) and Grasse.
Sources: INSEE (official geographic code 2025, 2022 population counts), OFB / EEA (CORINE Land Cover 2018), geo.api.gouv.fr (areas).
Game-bird rings: common questions
How do I report a ringed partridge taken in Alpes-Maritimes?
Just as for a pheasant: photo of the ring, number checked, species “red-legged partridge” or “grey partridge”, and the municipality. Nothing differs in Alpes-Maritimes.
Will my name appear on the Alpes-Maritimes page?
No. Public pages only show totals per department, never a count below 3; no hunter, ACCA or municipality is ever named.
Does GIBIS validate reports from Alpes-Maritimes?
No, never. Recoveries are validated by the federation of the department where the bird was released, if it is registered on RingFollow.
How do I recognise a Gibis ring found in Alpes-Maritimes?
A coloured, numbered leg ring, or a numbered coloured plastic wing tag, with no address. A ring engraved with an address belongs to another scheme: the guide explains where to report it.
Which neighbouring departments track their rings on RingFollow?
None of its direct neighbours. The nearest registered federation is in Isère, about 190 km away between department centres.
For federations
The situation of every federation is on the Federations page. A federation that would like to track its recoveries can write to gibis@gibis.fr.
Few figures for Alpes-Maritimes so far? See what a well-filled department page looks like (example with simulated data).