Perdix perdix (Marek Szczepanek).jpg
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The grey partridge (''Perdix perdix''), also known as the gray-legged partridge, English partridge, Hungarian partridge, or hun, is a gamebird in the pheasant family
Phasianidae The Phasianidae are a family (biology), family of heavy, ground-living birds, which includes pheasants, partridges, junglefowl, chickens, Turkey bird, turkeys, Old World quail, and peafowl. The family includes many of the most popular Game (hunti ...
of the order Galliformes, gallinaceous birds. The scientific name is the Latin for "partridge", and is itself derived from Ancient Greek ''perdix''.


Description

The grey partridge is a rotund bird, brown-backed, with grey flanks and chest. The belly is white, usually marked with a large chestnut-brown horse-shoe mark in males, and also in many females. Hens lay up to twenty eggs in a ground nest. The nest is usually in the margin of a cereal field, most commonly
winter wheat Winter wheat (usually ''Triticum aestivum'') are strains of wheat that are planted in the autumn to germinate and develop into young plants that remain in the vegetative phase during the winter and resume growth in early spring. Classification ...
. Measurements: * Length: * Weight: * Wingspan: The only major and constant difference between the sexes is the so-called cross of Lorraine on the tertiary coverts of females—these being marked with two transverse bars, as opposed to the one in males. These are present after around 16 weeks of age when the birds have moulted into adult plumage. Young grey partridges are mostly yellow-brown and lack the distinctive face and underpart markings. The song is a harsh, high-pitched ''kieerr-ik'', and when disturbed, like most of the gamebirds, it flies a short distance on rounded wings, often calling ''rick rick rick'' as it rises. They are a seed-eating species, but the young in particular take insects as an essential protein supply. During the first 10 days of life, the young can only digest insects. The parents lead their chicks to the edges of
cereal A cereal is any Poaceae, grass cultivated for the edible components of its grain (botanically, a type of fruit called a caryopsis), composed of the endosperm, Cereal germ, germ, and bran. Cereal Grain, grain crops are grown in greater quantit ...
fields, where they can forage for insects.


Distribution

Widespread and common throughout much of its range, the grey partridge is evaluated as "of Least Concern" on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. However, it has suffered a serious decline in the UK, and in 2015 appeared on the "Birds of Conservation Concern" Red List. This partridge breeds on farmland across most of Europe and across the western
Palearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...
as far as southwestern Siberia and has been introduced widely into Canada, United States, South Africa,
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
and New Zealand. A popular gamebird in vast areas of North America, it is commonly known as "Hungarian partridge" or just "hun". They are also a
non-migratory Bird migration is the regular seasonal movement, often north and south along a flyway, between breeding and wintering grounds. Many species of bird migrate. Migration carries high costs in predation and mortality, including from hunting by ...
terrestrial species, and form flocks in numbers of up to 30 outside of the breeding season.


Status and conservation

Though common and not threatened, it appears to be declining in numbers in some areas of intensive cultivation such as the United Kingdom, probably due to a loss of breeding habitat and insecticides harming insect numbers, an important food source for the species. Their numbers have fallen in these areas by as much as 85% in the last 25 years. Efforts are being made in the United Kingdom by organizations such as the
Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (formerly the Game Conservancy Trust) is a British charitable organisation promoting game and wildlife management as a part of nature conservation, whilst working with the shooting and hunting community. For ...
to halt this decline by creating
conservation headland A conservation headland is a strip along the edge of an agricultural field, where pesticides are sprayed only in a selective manner. This increases the number and type of weed and insect species present, and benefits the bird species that depend o ...
s. In 1995, it was nominated a Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) species. In Ireland, it is now virtually confined to the
Lough Boora Boora Bog (Irish ''Portach na Buaraí'') is a cutaway peat bog situated in County Offaly, Ireland. Peat was harvested for fuel between the 1950s and 1970s, and the land is now being reclaimed for agricultural and eco-tourism use. There was a l ...
reserve in
County Offaly County Offaly (; ga, Contae Uíbh Fhailí) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the province of Leinster. It is named after the ancient Kingdom of Uí Failghe. It was formerly known as King's County, in hono ...
where a recent conservation project has succeeded in boosting its numbers to around 900, raising hopes that it may be reintroduced to the rest of Ireland.


Subspecies

There are eight recognized
subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...
: * ''P. p. perdix'' ( Linnaeus,
1758 Events January–March * January 1 – Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus (Carl von Linné) publishes in Stockholm the first volume (''Animalia'') of the 10th edition of Systema Naturae, 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'', the sta ...
)
– nominate, found in the British Isles and southern Scandinavia to Italy and the Balkans * ''P. p. armoricana'' (
Hartert Ernst Johann Otto Hartert (29 October 1859 – 11 November 1933) was a widely published German ornithologist. Life and career Hartert was born in Hamburg, Germany on 29 October 1859. In July 1891, he married the illustrator Claudia Bernadine E ...
, 1917)
– found locally in France * ''P. p. sphagnetorum'' ( Altum, 1894) – found in the moors of the northern part of the Netherlands and northwest Germany * ''P. p. hispaniensis'' (
Reichenow Anton Reichenow (1 August 1847 in Charlottenburg – 6 July 1941 in Hamburg) was a German ornithologist and herpetologist. Reichenow was the son-in-law of Jean Cabanis, and worked at the Natural History Museum of Berlin from 1874 to 1921. He was ...
, 1892)
: Iberian partridge, found from central Pyrenees to northeast Portugal * ''P. p. italica'' (Hartert, 1917) – Italian grey partridge, supposed extinct, now reintroduced * ''P. p. lucida'' (Altum, 1894) – eastern grey partridge, found from Finland east to Ural Mountains and south to Black Sea and northern Caucasus * ''P. p. canescens'' ( Burturlin, 1906) – southern grey partridge, found from Turkey east to the South Caucasus and northwest Iran * ''P. p. robusta'' ( Homeyer and Tancré, 1883) – southeastern grey partridge, found from the Ural Mountains to southwestern Siberia and northwestern
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...


References


External links

*
Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust - Grey Partridge
*

– Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Ageing and sexing (PDF; 2.6 MB) by Javier Blasco-Zumeta & Gerd-Michael Heinze


{{Authority control Game birds grey partridge Birds described in 1758 Birds of Europe Birds of Central Asia Birds of North America grey partridge Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus