• Summary
• Text account
• Data table and detailed info
• Distribution map
• Reference and further resources

Taxonomic source(s)
AERC TAC. 2003. AERC TAC Checklist of bird taxa occurring in Western Palearctic region, 15th Draft. Available at: http://www.aerc.eu/DOCS/Bird_taxa_of_the_WP15.xls.
Cramp, S. and Simmons, K.E.L. (eds). 1977-1994. Handbook of the birds of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The birds of the western Palearctic. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
del Hoyo, J., Collar, N.J., Christie, D.A., Elliott, A. and Fishpool, L.D.C. 2014. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 1: Non-passerines. Lynx Edicions BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK.
Turbott, E.G. 1990. Checklist of the Birds of New Zealand. Ornithological Society of New Zealand, Wellington.

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	-

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2020	Near Threatened	A2bcde+3bcde+4bcde
2018	Least Concern
2016	Least Concern
2012	Least Concern
2009	Least Concern
2008	Least Concern
2004	Least Concern
2000	Lower Risk/Least Concern
1994	Lower Risk/Least Concern
1988	Lower Risk/Least Concern

Migratory status	not a migrant	Forest dependency	does not normally occur in forest
Land-mass type		Average mass	-

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence (breeding/resident)	1,710,000 km2
Severely fragmented?	no	-

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
Population size	9950000-13700000 mature individuals	poor	estimated	2020
Population trend	decreasing	-	inferred	2015-2025
Rate of change over the past 10 years/3 generations (longer of the two periods)	20-29%	-	-	-
Rate of change over the future 10 years/3 generations (longer of the two periods)	20-29%	-	-	-
Rate of change over the past & future 10 years/3 generations (longer of the two periods)	20-29%	-	-	-
Generation length	2.1 years	-	-	-

Population justification: The breeding population, which is confined to Europe, is estimated at  4,975,000-6,850,000 pairs, which equates to 9,950,000-13,700,000 mature individuals (BirdLife International in prep.).

Trend justification: The population is believed to have declined at a rate of 20-29% over ten years (the species's generation length is 2.1 years; Bird et al. 2020), due to the effects of agricultural intensification, habitat conversion, over-hunting and the effects of high volume release of farm-reared birds, many of which proved to be hybrid A. chukar x A. rufa (Blanco-Aguiar et al. 2008, Barbanera et al. 2010).
This is a lower rate of population reduction than the 40-45% in ten years reported by EU Member States to the European Commission under Article 12 of the EU Birds Directive (BirdLife International in prep.), or the 44% in ten years since 2008 reported under the Pan-European Common Bird Monitoring Scheme. There is a high likelihood that population monitoring in the core range of the species was incomplete, as this species is managed for hunting on large privately-owned estates that were inaccessible to the surveyors. Red-legged Partridge is the most economically important small-game species in central Spain, and 87% of hunting estates, holding a large proportion of the population, are privately owned (Díaz‐Fernández et al. 2012).
However, these populations are not considered immune to the declines occurring throughout the rest of the range, and while there is scope for good management to maintain viable populations with a hunting surplus, it is suspected that these populations are also undergoing a moderate population reduction.

Country/Territory	Presence	Origin	Resident	Breeding visitor	Non-breeding visitor	Passage migrant
Algeria	extant	introduced	yes
Andorra	extant	native	yes
Belgium	extant	vagrant			yes
France	extant	native	yes
Germany	extant	native	yes
Greece	extant	introduced	yes
Ireland	extant	introduced		yes
Italy	extant	native	yes
Luxembourg	extant	vagrant			yes
Netherlands	extant	vagrant			yes
New Zealand	extant	introduced		yes
Portugal	extant	native	yes
Spain	extant	native	yes
Switzerland	extant	vagrant			yes
United Kingdom	extant	introduced	yes

Country/Territory	IBA Name
Spain	Lerida steppes
Spain	West Andévalo

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Artificial/Terrestrial	Arable Land	suitable	resident
Grassland	Temperate	suitable	resident
Rocky areas (eg. inland cliffs, mountain peaks)		suitable	resident
Shrubland	Mediterranean-type Shrubby Vegetation	suitable	resident
Shrubland	Temperate	suitable	resident
Altitude	0 - 2000 m	Occasional altitudinal limits

Threat (level 1)	Threat (level 2)	Impact and Stresses
Agriculture & aquaculture	Annual & perennial non-timber crops - Agro-industry farming	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Majority (50-90%)		Rapid Declines		Medium Impact: 7
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation, Reduced reproductive success
Agriculture & aquaculture	Livestock farming & ranching - Agro-industry grazing, ranching or farming	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation, Reduced reproductive success
Biological resource use	Hunting & trapping terrestrial animals - Intentional use (species is the target)	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Majority (50-90%)		Causing/Could cause fluctuations		Medium Impact: 6
		Stresses Species mortality
Invasive and other problematic species, genes & diseases	Introduced genetic material	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Unknown		Unknown
		Stresses Hybridisation
Pollution	Agricultural & forestry effluents - Herbicides and pesticides	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Majority (50-90%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Medium Impact: 6
		Stresses Reduced reproductive success

Purpose	Scale
Food - human	subsistence, national
Pets/display animals, horticulture	international
Sport hunting/specimen collecting	subsistence, national

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2025) Species factsheet: Red-legged Partridge Alectoris rufa. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/red-legged-partridge-alectoris-rufa on 03/01/2025.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2025) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 03/01/2025.