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The UK Bird Atlas

Red-legged Partridge (Alectoris rufa)Where and when to see it in the UK

Resident · reporting peaks March to May · Partridges, Pheasants, Grouse, and Allies · BOU category C1E*F

Records to 2026-08-16 · build 2026-08-31

Red-legged Partridge (Alectoris rufa)
Didier Descouens, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
Red-legged Partridge: relative reporting rate by 10 km square, September

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (grid squares, place names from OS Open Names). Northern Ireland place names: OSNI Open Data, OGL v3.0. County and country boundaries: Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0. Coastline: Natural Earth. Bird records from the data partners listed here.

Red-legged Partridge has been recorded in 1,761 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (59%) in records to 2026. Resident in the UK. Its strongest squares are in England, Scotland and Wales. Reporting peaks in March to May.

Conservation status: Near Threatened (IUCN Red List, NT)
View on the IUCN Red List
Relative to this species' best squares (how classes are calculated)
Very high
28% or more of visits
High
8% to 28%
Moderate
3% to 8%
Low
under 3%
Surveyed, not recorded
at least 20 qualifying visits, no record
Insufficient records
too few visits to say
Lighter fill
Few visits, lower confidence
Small dot
Occasional: a single record, or out of season

Seasonality

Reporting rate by month, relative to the peak month
MonthRelative to peakShare of visitsTypical class
January 49%2%Low
February 57%3%Very high
March 87%4%Very high
April 100%5%Very high
May 89%4%Very high
June 54%3%Very high
July 32%2%Very high
August 32%2%Very high
September 41%2%Very high
October 54%3%Very high
November 48%2%Very high
December 41%2%Very high

Squares with the highest reporting rate in March

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
HY64Orkney Islands, Scotland100%Very high
NH65Highland, Scotland100%Very high
NH74Highland, Scotland100%Very high
NH83Highland, Scotland100%Very high
NH93Highland, Scotland100%Very high
NJ12Moray, Scotland100%Very high
NJ22Moray, Scotland100%Very high
NJ43Aberdeenshire, Scotland100%Very high
NJ83Aberdeenshire, Scotland100%Very high
NJ93Aberdeenshire, Scotland100%Very high

Spotted an error in a square? Report it and it goes into the review queue. Read the methodology for how classes, flags and sensitive-species rules work. Data to 2026.