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BTO Blueline
GREY PARTRIDGE
Perdix perdix
Grey Partridge © Tommy Holden
 

• Population
  changes

• Productivity
  trends

• Additional
  information
Conservation listings
Europe: SPEC category 3 (vulnerable)
UK: red (>50% population decline)
UK Biodiversity Action Plan: click here
Long-term trend
UK, England: rapid decline
UK population size
70,000–75,000 pairs in 2000 (1988–91 Atlas estimate updated using CBC/BBS trend: BiE04, APEP06)
Status summary
This species has declined enormously, probably because of the effects of agricultural intensification (specifically herbicides) on the food plants of young chicks' insect prey (Potts 1986). Despite years of research and the application of a government Biodiversity Action Plan (Aebischer & Ewald 2004), the continuing decline shown by CBC/BBS suggests that all efforts to boost the population have so far been unsuccessful. Local extinctions are now likely to be widespread, but masked in some areas by continuing releases of hand-reared birds onto shooting estates. Artificial rearing has increased since the mid 1980s, despite the failure of restocking as a means of restoring breeding numbers (see here), while releases of non-native gamebirds, which have increased greatly, can be detrimental to the native species. Infection with caecal nematodes from farm-reared Pheasants may be contributing to the decline of Grey Partridges in Britain (Tompkins et al. 2002).The practice of releasing Red-legged Partridges in large numbers can lead to Grey Partridge extinction, in part because shooters are unable to distinguish these two species (Watson et al. 2007): these authors conclude that overshooting has greater implications for Grey Partridge conservation than raptor predation. Grey Partridge is one of the most strongly declining bird species in Europe, having decreased at an annual rate of 7% during 1980–2005 (PECBMS 2007).
 

Population changes
CBC/BBS UK graph
 
Table of population changes for Grey Partridge

Source Period
(yrs)		 Years Plots
(n)		 Change
(%)		 Lower
limit		 Upper
limit		 Alert Comment
CBC/BBS UK 39 1967-2006 119 -88 -91 -83 >50  
  25 1981-2006 142 -78 -85 -71 >50  
  10 1996-2006 245 -39 -48 -31 >25  
  5 2001-2006 222 -13 -24 -1    
CBC/BBS England 39 1967-2006 107 -88 -91 -82 >50  
  25 1981-2006 126 -78 -84 -71 >50  
  10 1996-2006 220 -33 -41 -25 >25  
  5 2001-2006 202 -4 -14 6    
BBS UK 11 1995-2006 227 -40 -49 -32 >25  
  10 1996-2006 230 -38 -47 -30 >25  
  5 2001-2006 222 -14 -25 -5    
BBS England 11 1995-2006 202 -35 -44 -26 >25  
  10 1996-2006 205 -31 -41 -23 >25  
  5 2001-2006 202 -5 -15 3    

BBS acknowledgement
 
CBC/BBS England graph
BBS UK graph
BBS England graph
 

Productivity trends
Productivity information is not currently available for this species
 

Additional information
BTO blue divider
 

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This report should be cited as:
Baillie, S.R., Marchant, J.H., Leech, D.I., Joys, A.C., Noble, D.G.,
Barimore, C., Grantham, M.J., Risely, K. & Robinson, R.A. (2009).
Breeding Birds in the Wider Countryside: their conservation status 2008.
BTO Research Report No. 516. BTO, Thetford. (http://www.bto.org/birdtrends)

Pages maintained by Iain Downie, Mandy T Andrews and Laura Smith: Last updated 18.02.2009