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Lifespan, longevity, and ageing

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Maximum longevity: 5.2 years (wild)
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Biology

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Adults feed on grass, seeds and shoots; they also take some insects during the breeding season. The young feed completely on invertebrates such as sawflies, beetles and aphids for the first 2 weeks after hatching (2). The breeding season lasts between mid-April and early September. During this relatively long period, just one brood is produced; but as the clutch can contain up to 16 eggs (one of the largest clutches of any living bird species) this is perhaps understandable. If the clutch is lost, however, an emergency 'replacement brood' can be produced (2). Nests are usually well hidden at the base of a hedge or clump of vegetation, and consist of a scrape in the ground lined with grass and leaves (2). After the breeding season, grey partridges form groups known as 'coveys' (2).
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Conservation

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The grey partridge is a priority species under the UK Biodiversity Action Plan (UK BAP); the plan aims to halt the decline by 2005, and maintain and enhance the range of the species (7). The Game Conservancy Trust (GCT) is working to encourage land managers and farmers to manage their land in ways that benefit the grey partridge. Measures include the provision of suitable nesting areas, feeding areas for summer and winter (stubble fields and conservation headlands) and predator control. Research by the GTC into the ecology of the grey partridge is ongoing, and aims to guide suitable habitat management for the benefit of this species (6).
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Description

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The grey partridge is native to Britain, and was once known simply as 'the partridge'. The introduced red-legged partridge became so common, however, that the pre-fix 'grey' was added (4). A relatively small-headed, rotund gamebird, the grey partridge has an orange face and throat, green bill and grey legs (2). In males, the white underbelly is marked with an obvious chestnut coloured horseshoe on the lower breast (5). Females are similar in appearance, but duller in colour. Grey partridges fly close to the ground, interspersing bouts of wing flapping with wobbly glides, producing a whirring noise as the wings flap (5). The voice includes a high, hoarse 'keev', and a 'pitt-pitt-pitt' when alarmed (2).
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Habitat

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In addition to farmland, the grey partridge can be found on wasteland, moors, and sand dunes. Adults prefer to occupy open grass or vegetation, but tend to move their chicks into cereal crops with abundant sources of the invertebrate food required by the young (2).
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Range

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Breeds throughout Europe from the UK to Kazakhstan, extending north to Scandinavia, with a patchy distribution in southern Europe. A resident farmland bird, in Britain the grey partridge inhabits lowland arable areas from the south chalklands as far north as Aberdeen (2).
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Status

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Included in the Red list of Birds of Conservation Concern in the UK (2). Protected by The Games Act (open season: 1 September-1 February), and listed under Annex III/1 of the EC Birds Directive, and Appendix III of the Bern Convention (3).
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Threats

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The grey partridge was once an extremely common gamebird in Britain (6); before 1940 an average of 2 million individuals were shot each year (2). Between 1969 and 1990, however, the UK population fell by more than 50% (7), and a 1993 estimate put the population at 150,000 pairs. The main reason for this huge decline is thought to be changes in agricultural practices, such as the widespread loss of suitable nesting sites due to agricultural intensification. The increased use of herbicides and pesticides has reduced the availability of insect food for chicks. Furthermore, farm operations, particularly early mowing, carried out by machinery have caused massive losses of nests (7).
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Associations

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Animal / dung saprobe
mostly immersed pseudothecium of Sporormiella bipartis is saprobic in/on dung or excretions of dung of Perdix perdix

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Grey partridge

provided by wikipedia EN

The grey partridge (Perdix perdix), also known as the gray-legged partridge,[2] English partridge, Hungarian partridge, or hun, is a gamebird in the pheasant family Phasianidae of the order Galliformes, gallinaceous birds. The scientific name is the Latin for "partridge", and is itself derived from Ancient Greek perdix.[3]

Description

Uncommon grey partridge in Alberta, Canada[4]
Grey partridge on 1957 postage stamp of the Soviet Union
Egg, Collection Museum Wiesbaden

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.

Measurements:[5]

  • Length: 11.8–13.0 in (30–33 cm)
  • Weight: 13.6–17.6 oz (390–500 g)
  • Wingspan: 20.9–22.1 in (53–56 cm)

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 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.[6] This partridge breeds on farmland across most of Europe and across the western Palearctic as far as southwestern Siberia and has been introduced widely into Canada, United States, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.[7] 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 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 to halt this decline by creating conservation headlands.

In 1995, it was nominated a Biodiversity action plan (BAP) species. In Ireland, it is now virtually confined to the Lough Boora reserve in County Offaly 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.[8]

Subspecies

There are eight recognized subspecies:

Perdix perdix hispaniensis - MHNT
  • P. p. italica (Hartert, 1917) – Italian grey partridge, supposedly extinct, now reintroduced[9]
  • P. p. sphagnetorum (Altum, 1894) – found in the moors of the northern part of the Netherlands and northwest Germany

References

  1. ^ BirdLife International (2016). "Perdix perdix". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T22678911A85929015. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22678911A85929015.en. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  2. ^ Hunter Adair (2000). A Guide to the Countryside: Wild Animals and Birds. Abbey Press. ISBN 978-1-902756-04-2. Retrieved 16 November 2021.
  3. ^ Jobling, James A (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 297. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
  4. ^ Sibley, David Allen (2003). The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America (A Chanticleer Press ed.). Knopf. p. 122. ISBN 0-679-45121-8.
  5. ^ "Gray Partridge Identification, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology". www.allaboutbirds.org. Retrieved 2020-09-26.
  6. ^ "BoCC4 Red List" (PDF). Birds of Conservation Concern. Retrieved 2015-12-25.
  7. ^ Long, John L. (1981). Introduced Birds of the World. Agricultural Protection Board of Western Australia. pp. 21–493.
  8. ^ Lee, George (5 September 2019). "Grey Partridge population on the increase". RTE. Retrieved 5 September 2020.
  9. ^ "Welcome back Perdix perdix italica!". Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale. Retrieved 2021-12-13.

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Grey partridge: Brief Summary

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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 of the order Galliformes, gallinaceous birds. The scientific name is the Latin for "partridge", and is itself derived from Ancient Greek perdix.

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