A bird taken in Yvelines carries a coloured, numbered ring? That number is enough to trace it back to its release, whether you hunt near Versailles or in any of the department's 259 municipalities. Reports are useful to the ACCAs (approved communal hunting associations) and federations that organise releases; the public only ever sees totals per department. Yvelines is one of the eight departments of the Île-de-France region, with Versailles as its prefecture.
Ring tracking in Yvelines
For department 78, 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 78.
Reporting a ring found in Yvelines
- Open bagues.gibis.fr on your phone and photograph the ring close up, in good light.
- Say where the bird was taken: the municipality is used for validation and never appears in public.
- Pick the species from the list (pheasant, hare, grey partridge and red-legged partridge); sex and circumstances are optional.
- Send it. For 24 hours you can still remove or add a photo.
The regional picture
Besides Yvelines, the Île-de-France region comprises Val-d'Oise, Seine-Saint-Denis, Seine-et-Marne, Essonne, Hauts-de-Seine, Val-de-Marne and Paris. None of the eight departments in the region has a federation tracking its rings on RingFollow at present (see the list by region).
What the rings say in Yvelines
- So far, RingFollow has no validated recovery taken in Yvelines.
- The validation queue for Yvelines is empty.
- For comparison, all of France: 3,592 ringed birds in 85 releases and 16 validated recoveries (5 participating federations); details on the Statistics page.
Why report a recovery
Every recovery reported gives a date, a distance and a species. Added together, they give an operation's recovery rate and how far the birds disperse after release: enough to adjust future releases in Yvelines.
What next?
Once sent, the report is kept; if you left an e-mail address, an acknowledgement follows. Next comes the matching: does the ring belong to a recorded release? If so, and if that department's federation is registered, it reviews the recovery. Without a match, the report stays on file for Yvelines, unpublished, until a federation can validate it. The public only sees totals per department; points on the national map are rounded to about 1 km.
Key facts about Yvelines
Land cover in 2018 (CORINE Land Cover): agricultural areas lead with 47%, followed by forests and semi-natural areas (31%). The rest is shared between artificial surfaces (21%) and water bodies (1%). About 2,300 km², 259 municipalities and 1,485,086 inhabitants in 2022: those are the orders of magnitude. At 31%, the share of forests and semi-natural areas here is the highest among the department and its five neighbours. Besides Versailles, the prefecture, the department has three sub-prefectures: Mantes-la-Jolie, Rambouillet and Saint-Germain-en-Laye.
Sources: INSEE (official geographic code 2025, 2022 population counts), OFB / EEA (CORINE Land Cover 2018), geo.api.gouv.fr (areas).
Breeding and restocking
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.
Neighbouring departments
Its neighbours are Eure to the north-west, Val-d'Oise to the north-east, Eure-et-Loir to the south-west, Hauts-de-Seine to the east and Essonne to the south-east. Beyond the regional boundary lie the regions of Centre-Val de Loire and Normandy. Among its neighbours, the share of agricultural areas ranges from 0% (Hauts-de-Seine) to 84% (Eure-et-Loir), against 47% here (CORINE Land Cover 2018). None of these neighbours tracks its rings on RingFollow; the nearest registered federation is in Ain, about 400 km to the south-east (centre to centre).
Your questions about Yvelines
Who validates a recovery reported in Yvelines?
A hunters' federation: the one for the department where the bird was originally released, if it is registered on RingFollow. The Yvelines hunters' federation (FDC 78) does not use RingFollow at present, and GIBIS never validates.
Where do I report a pheasant ring found in Yvelines?
On bagues.gibis.fr, from a phone: a photo of the ring, the species and the municipality where the bird was taken are enough. No account is needed.
How long is a report from Yvelines kept?
Five hunting seasons, the duration of the restocking study. After that it is kept only in anonymised form, without contact details or licence number.
Which neighbouring departments track their rings on RingFollow?
None of its direct neighbours. The nearest registered federation is in Ain, about 400 km away between department centres.
How do I recognise a Gibis ring found in Yvelines?
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.
Registering a federation
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.
To get an idea of a department page with its statistics, see the sample page (simulated data).