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  Profile

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  In flight

Game Birds

Gray Partridge

Perdix perdix

• rare
• 55 km/h
• Least Concern

Old World import that took to the prairies. Coveys explode from stubble fields with a startling whir.

Population

3,300,000–5,300,000 mature individuals globally (BirdLife/IUCN 2018 estimate, decreasing trend)

Habitat

Open, low-intensity mixed farmland, cereal/arable fields, hedgerows, and temperate grasslands/steppe, generally at low elevation (up to ~2,600 m)

Fun fact

The Grey Partridge hen lays clutches of up to 20-22 eggs, among the largest of any bird species.

Range

Native across Europe and the western Palearctic east to southwestern Siberia (BirdLife extends the range description to China); introduced and established in North America (as "Hungarian partridge"/"hun"), South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand

Diet

Mainly seeds and green plant matter as adults (occasional opportunistic insects), but chicks can only digest insects for their first ~10 days of life

Size

0.3 m

Wingspan

0.46 m

Lifespan

4 years