Barbary partridge

Alectoris barbara

Group: Upland birds
Size class: Small (under 10 kg)
Family: Phasianidae

Range

Africa
Europe

Habitat

Scrub
Desert

Range

Countries it is found in

12 countries

Algeria
Chad
Egypt
France
Gibraltar
Italy
Libya
Mauritania
Morocco
Spain
Tunisia
Western Sahara

Range from:Wikipedia country bird lists, GBIF occurrence records — read 2026-08-05

Chapter 01

Overview

The Barbary partridge (Alectoris barbara) is a gamebird of the pheasant family native to North Africa, from Morocco to north-western Egypt, and the national bird of Gibraltar, where it appears on the local 1 pence coin. Four subspecies are recognised; the isolated Libyan and Egyptian A. b. barbata differs from the rest and may be a species in its own right. It has been introduced to Gibraltar, the Canary Islands, continental Portugal and Madeira, and it is also present in Sardinia; opinions differ on whether the birds of southern Spain, the Canaries and Sardinia are native or planted. The IUCN classes it as least concern, though the population trend is unknown.

Chapter 02

Identification

A rotund partridge, 33–36 cm long, with a grey-brown back, grey breast and buff belly, rufous-barred white flanks and red legs. It is the odd one out among the Alectoris: it has no white bib, but a light grey face and throat, a broad reddish-brown collar, a chestnut crown and a stripe running back from the cheek. It is closely related to its western European counterpart, the red-legged partridge, and differs in head and neck pattern. The song is a noisy tre-tre-tre-tre-tre-cheeche-tre-tre-tre.

Chapter 03

Behaviour

A resident breeder of dry, open and often hilly country, from barren rocky slopes to open woodland with clearings and dry lowlands, between 100 and 3,300 m. When disturbed it would rather run than fly, and if it must fly it goes a short distance on rounded wings. It takes a wide variety of seeds, leaves, shoots and fruit and some insects such as ants, and usually starts feeding and drinking at dawn. Eggs are laid from March to May in a scantily lined scrape on the ground, 10–16 of them. In Tunisia a few pairs have been found breeding in trees in the empty nests of Maghreb magpies, probably to escape heavy predation on the ground.

Sources

Sources: Barbary partridge — Wikipedia, Klipphöna — Wikipedia — read 2026-10-29

Cross-reference