Red-legged Partridge, Alectoris rufa, is a species of gamebird found in grassland, heathland and shrub and unvegetated or sparsely vegetated land ecosystems. It is endemic to Europe, where it is confined to south-western parts of the continent (Andorra; France; Germany; Italy; Portugal; Spain). The species is found in open habitats ranging from Mediterranean to humid temperate zones but not in boreal, oceanic or arid zones. It prefers lowland areas and avoids forest and wet areas if possible. It uses habitats with a wide variety of soils and land uses including dry hilly land with scattered bushes up to about 1,300 m (occasionally up to 2,000 m) in montane foothills, inhospitable dry terrain on lower mountain slopes and marginal cultivation, cropland, orchards or woodland. Over most of its range it is associated with arable farming, using low-intensity cropping with a mixture of cultivated, fallow and uncultivated ground (European Red List 2015).

Alectoris rufa has a breeding population size of 5140000-7170000 pairs and a breeding range size of 1200000 square kilometres in the EU27. The breeding population trend in the EU27 is Decreasing in the short term and Decreasing in the long term.

The EU population status of Alectoris rufa was assessed as Declining, because EU27 population or range declined by at least 20% since 1980, with continuing decline since 2001.