A bird taken in Val-d'Oise carries a coloured, numbered ring? That number is enough to trace it back to its release, whether you hunt near Pontoise or in any of the department's 183 municipalities. Reports are useful to the ACCAs (approved communal hunting associations) and federations that organise releases; the public only ever sees totals per department. Val-d'Oise is one of the eight departments of the Île-de-France region, with Pontoise as its prefecture.
Validating recoveries in Val-d'Oise
For department 95, 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 Val-d'Oise.
Found a ring: what to do
- Open bagues.gibis.fr on your phone and photograph the ring close up, in good light.
- Enter the municipality, Pontoise or any other in the department; no municipality is ever shown publicly.
- State the species, pheasant or hare 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.
Recoveries and reports in Val-d'Oise
- No validated recovery has been located in Val-d'Oise on RingFollow so far.
- No report linked to the department is awaiting validation.
- For comparison, all of France: 3,592 ringed birds in 85 releases and 16 validated recoveries (5 participating federations); details on the Statistics page.
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.
What a reported ring is for
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 Val-d'Oise.
The department at a glance
The European CORINE Land Cover inventory (2018) puts agricultural areas at 53% of the area and artificial surfaces at 27%. The rest is shared between forests and semi-natural areas (19%) and water bodies (1%). With 1,281,653 inhabitants (INSEE, 2022 population count) on about 1,250 km², the density is roughly 1,025 inhabitants per km²; the department has 183 municipalities. With the share of artificial surfaces at 27%, the department is in the top five of the 96 departments of metropolitan France. Besides Pontoise, the prefecture, the department has two sub-prefectures: Argenteuil and Sarcelles.
Sources: INSEE (official geographic code 2025, 2022 population counts), OFB / EEA (CORINE Land Cover 2018), geo.api.gouv.fr (areas).
What happens to the report
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 Val-d'Oise, 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).
Across the borders
Six departments border it: Seine-et-Marne to the south-east, Oise to the north-east, Yvelines to the south-west, Seine-Saint-Denis to the south-east, Hauts-de-Seine to the south and Eure to the west. Beyond the regional boundary lie the regions of Hauts-de-France and Normandy. Among its neighbours, the share of agricultural areas ranges from 0% (Hauts-de-Seine) to 72% (Eure), against 53% here (CORINE Land Cover 2018). No federation registered on RingFollow lies within 400 km; all of them are listed on the Federations page.
The regional picture
Besides Val-d'Oise, the Île-de-France region comprises Val-de-Marne, Hauts-de-Seine, Essonne, Seine-et-Marne, Seine-Saint-Denis, Yvelines and Paris. None of the eight departments in the region has a federation tracking its rings on RingFollow at present (see the Federations page). At 1,281,653 inhabitants in 2022, the population here is the lowest among the eight departments of the Île-de-France region.
Your questions about Val-d'Oise
Do I have to give my name to report a ring in Val-d'Oise?
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.
Why are there no statistics for Val-d'Oise?
A department's statistics are only published if its federation tracks its rings on RingFollow and at least 3 releases are recorded there. The Val-d'Oise hunters' federation (FDC 95) does not use RingFollow at present.
How do I recognise a Gibis ring found in Val-d'Oise?
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.
Can I report a ring without a mobile signal in Val-d'Oise?
Yes. The form keeps the report on the phone and sends it as soon as coverage returns, wherever you are in Val-d'Oise.
Does GIBIS validate reports from Val-d'Oise?
No, never. Recoveries are validated by the federation of the department where the bird was released, if it is registered on RingFollow.
A federation that would like to track its rings
A registered federation validates the recoveries in its own department and can export its data. Full list: Federations; contact: gibis@gibis.fr.
Few figures for Val-d'Oise so far? See what a well-filled department page looks like (example with simulated data).