Coloured ring on the leg, number clearly legible: if you have recovered a farm-reared bird in Nord, here is where to report it and what happens to the information. RingFollow never publishes the name of a hunter, an ACCA (approved communal hunting association) or a municipality, nor any count below 3. Nord is one of the five departments of the Hauts-de-France region, with Lille as its prefecture.
Ring tracking in Nord
For department 59, no federation uses RingFollow at present. Nothing changes for the hunter: the report is made the same way, and federations, not GIBIS, validate recoveries. The ring number leads back to the original release: if the federation of the department where it took place is registered, it validates; if not, the report waits, filed under department 59.
Found a ring: what to do
- Start with a sharp photo of the ring: the number is read automatically, and you check it.
- Enter the municipality, Lille or any other in the department; no municipality is ever shown publicly.
- State the species, pheasant or grey partridge for example, and if you know them, the sex and circumstances of the recovery.
- Send the report; name, phone and e-mail are optional, but an e-mail address gets you an acknowledgement.
Neighbouring departments
Its neighbours are Aisne to the south, Pas-de-Calais to the west and Somme to the south-west. All its neighbours belong, like the department itself, to the Hauts-de-France region. Among its neighbours, the share of agricultural areas ranges from 74% (Aisne) to 82% (Somme), against 72% here (CORINE Land Cover 2018). No federation registered on RingFollow lies within 400 km; all of them are listed on the Federations page.
Within the Hauts-de-France region
The other departments of the region are Pas-de-Calais, Somme, Aisne and Oise. None of the five departments in the region has a federation tracking its rings on RingFollow at present (see the list by region). The share of artificial surfaces (18%) is higher here than in any other department of the Hauts-de-France region.
Nord in figures
The European CORINE Land Cover inventory (2018) puts agricultural areas at 72% of the area and artificial surfaces at 18%. The rest is mostly forests and semi-natural areas (9%). INSEE counts 647 municipalities and 2,615,635 inhabitants (2022 population count) over about 5,750 km². The population (2,615,635 inhabitants in 2022) is higher here than in any other department of metropolitan France. Besides Lille, the prefecture, the department has five sub-prefectures: Avesnes-sur-Helpe, Cambrai, Douai, Dunkerque and Valenciennes.
Sources: INSEE (official geographic code 2025, 2022 population counts), OFB / EEA (CORINE Land Cover 2018), geo.api.gouv.fr (areas).
Breeding and restocking
RingFollow tracks rings; breeding, species and restocking are covered on gibis.fr: game birds for restocking and red-legged and grey partridges.
From report to validation
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. Without a match, the report stays on file for Nord, unpublished, until a federation can validate it. Reports are kept for five hunting seasons after the recovery, then retained only in anonymised form for statistics (see the privacy policy).
What the rings say in Nord
- No validated recovery has been located in Nord 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.
Why report a recovery
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.
Game-bird rings: common questions
Who validates a recovery reported in Nord?
A hunters' federation: the one for the department where the bird was originally released, if it is registered on RingFollow. The Nord hunters' federation (FDC 59) does not use RingFollow at present, and GIBIS never validates.
Do I have to give my name to report a ring in Nord?
No. Name, phone and e-mail are optional; an e-mail address only gets you an acknowledgement. Only the validating federation sees what you leave.
Can I report a ring without a mobile signal in Nord?
Yes. The form keeps the report on the phone and sends it as soon as coverage returns, wherever you are in Nord.
Should a ring engraved with an address, found in Nord, be reported here?
No. RingFollow only covers game-farm rings, which carry no address. Rings from scientific ringing schemes are reported to those schemes; this site's guide tells you more.
Why are there no statistics for Nord?
A department's statistics are only published if its federation tracks its rings on RingFollow and at least 3 releases are recorded there. The Nord hunters' federation (FDC 59) does not use RingFollow at present.
A federation that would like to track its rings
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 Nord so far? See what a well-filled department page looks like (example with simulated data).