Red-legged partridge

Alectoris rufa

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

Range

Europe

Habitat

Farmland
Scrub

Range

Countries it is found in

11 countries

Andorra
France
Germany
Greece
Italy
Monaco
Portugal
San Marino
Spain
Switzerland
United Kingdom

Range from:Wikipedia country bird lists — read 2026-08-05

Chapter 01

Overview

The red-legged partridge (Alectoris rufa), also called the French partridge to set it apart from the English or grey partridge, is a gamebird of the pheasant family and the westernmost of the Alectoris partridges. Linnaeus described it in 1758; the genus name is Ancient Greek for a farmyard chicken and rufa is Latin for red. Three subspecies are recognised, in France, northern Italy and Corsica and in the northern and southern halves of Iberia. It breeds naturally in south-western Europe and was introduced to Great Britain from France in the 18th century, where it has become an important gamebird. The population is estimated at five to seven million pairs, but it has fallen by some 20–29 per cent in ten years, and since 2020 the IUCN has listed it as near threatened.

Chapter 02

Identification

A rotund partridge, plain sandy-grey above, pale blue-grey on the breast and pinkish-buff on the belly, with eight to ten bold rufous and black bars on the flanks and pinkish-red legs, a bright red bill and a red eye-ring. The cream throat is framed by a black gorget that breaks up below into a broad patch of black streaks on the upper breast. That streaked lower edge is what separates it from the rock partridge and chukar, whose gorget is sharply defined. The call is a three-syllable ka-chu-chu.

Chapter 03

Behaviour

A non-migratory ground bird of dry lowlands — farmland, heath and open stony country — that forms flocks outside the breeding season and has been known to share ground with wild rabbits. When disturbed it would rather run than fly, and if it must fly it goes only a short way on rounded wings. Adults eat seeds, leaves and roots; the young in particular need insects for protein. The nest is on the ground. Laying runs from April to early May in Portugal, late April to May in England and May to mid-June in France. A hen can keep two clutches going at once, which is why the species is so easily reared in captivity.

Chapter 04

Hunting

Red-legged partridges are bred for shooting and sold and eaten as game, hung for sale at butchers such as one in Ludlow, Shropshire. Like the grey partridge they are reared in captivity and released for hunting, and have been introduced into large parts of North America for the same reason. Hunting, agricultural intensification and the release of farm-reared birds — many of them chukar hybrids — are among the threats behind its decline, and in Britain breeding chukars and red-legged/chukar hybrids is prohibited to protect wild red-legs. Birds have been recorded in Sweden, though they are not thought to have arrived naturally.

On the table

Meat & cooking

Table grade 4 of 54/5

Sold as meat in a legal market
Has a named traditional dish
Published way to handle and cook it
Eaten in more than one country
No known health advisory

Traditional preparations

Partridge pie: Partridge was among the main ingredients of game pies from Roman times, and Mrs Beeton's 1861 Book of Household Management gives a simple recipe for grouse and partridge pie. Game pie — Wikipedia

Sources

Sources: Red-legged partridge — Wikipedia, Rödhöna — Wikipedia, Partridge — Wikipedia, Game pie — Wikipedia — read 2026-10-29

Cross-reference