The Rock Partridge (Alectoris graeca) is a gamebird in the pheasant family Phasianidae of the order Galliformes, gallinaceous birds.
This partridge has its main (native) range in southwestern Asia and southeastern Europe, and is closely related and very similar to its eastern equivalent, the Chukar Partridge, A. chukar.
This is a resident breeder in dry, open and often hilly country. It nests in a scantily lined ground scrape laying 5-21 eggs. The Rock Partridge takes a wide variety of seeds and some insect food.
The Rock Partridge is a rotund bird, with a light brown back, grey breast and buff belly. The face is white with a black gorget. It has rufous-streaked flanks and red legs. When disturbed, it prefers to run rather than fly, but if necessary it flies a short distance on rounded wings.
It is very similar to the Chukar Partridge, but is greyer on the back and has a white, not yellowish foreneck. The sharply defined gorget distinguishes this species from Red-legged Partridge. The song is a noisy ga-ga-ga-ga-chakera- chakera- chakera.
This species is declining in parts of its range due to habitat loss and over-hunting. While it generally manages to hold its own, the status of the Sicilian population may be more precarious and certainly deserves attention (Randi 2006).
Read more about Rock Partridge: Systematics
Famous quotes containing the words rock and/or partridge:
“So there he is at last. Man on the moon. The poor magnificent bungler! He can’t even get to the office without undergoing the agonies of the damned, but give him a little metal, a few chemicals, some wire and twenty or thirty billion dollars and, vroom! there he is, up on a rock a quarter of a million miles up in the sky.”
—Russell Baker (b. 1925)
“The partridge and the rabbit are still sure to thrive, like true natives of the soil, whatever revolutions occur. If the forest is cut off, the sprouts and bushes which spring up afford them concealment, and they become more numerous than ever. That must be a poor country indeed that does not support a hare. Our woods teem with them both.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)