BTO - Breeding Birds of the Wider Countryside: Red-legged Partridge

RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE Alectoris rufa

Conservation listings

Europe: SPEC category 2 (declining)
UK: not listed (introduced)

Long-term trend

UK, England: moderate decline

Distribution maps

Maps and statistics from British and Irish
atlases can be viewed here.

Status summary

Red-legged Partridge is an introduced species whose abundance is probably very closely related to the numbers released for shooting. No UK conservation listing is warranted, therefore, by the moderate decline in the CBC/BBS index, which raises a BTO alert over the recent 25-year period. CBC/BBS data since 1994 indicate shallow increase in England and in the UK as a whole over this period.

Table of population changes for Red-legged Partridge

Source Period
(yrs) Years Plots
(n) Change
(%) Lower
limit Upper
limit Alert Comment

CBC/BBS UK 35 1967-2002 118 -30 -56 13

25 1977-2002 155 -48 -65 -28 >25

10 1992-2002 329 -9 -20 3

5 1997-2002 440 3 -4 11

CBC/BBS England 35 1967-2002 117 -31 -58 15

25 1977-2002 153 -49 -65 -29 >25

10 1992-2002 324 -11 -24 1

5 1997-2002 433 2 -6 10

BBS UK 9 1994-2003 379 28 14 43

BBS England 9 1994-2003 373 25 12 40

Productivity information is not currently available for this species


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This report should be cited as: Baillie, S.R., Marchant, J.H., Crick, H.Q.P., Noble, D.G., Balmer, D.E., Beaven, L.P., Coombes, R.H., Downie, I.S., Freeman, S.N., Joys, A.C., Leech, D.I., Raven, M.J., Robinson, R.A. and Thewlis, R.M. (2005) Breeding Birds in the Wider Countryside: their conservation status 2004. BTO Research Report No. 385. BTO, Thetford. (http://www.bto.org/birdtrends) Pages maintained by Susan Waghorn and Iain Downie: Last updated 18 January, 2006