The Collared Hill Partridge At Harewood Bird Garden

Professional birdkeeper HANNAH FRANCES AHERN introduces a little-known but beautiful gamebird

- Hannah Frances Ahern

THE collared hill partridge (Arborophila gingica) has been kept and bred at Harewood Bird Garden for the past several years. Our prolific pair aren’t the first to arrive here, as we previously exhibited pairs from the private collector G.E.S. (Gary) Robbins – once in 1999 and again in 2003 – breeding here for the first time shortly after their arrival in 2003.

This species has also been known as Rickett’s hill partridge; the name coming from C.B. Rickett (1851-1943), a British ornithologist who was primarily concerned with studying Chinese birds. Finally, some authorities (including the International Ornithological Committee) call it the white-necklaced partridge.

This partridge is endemic to southeastern China and is classified by the IUCN as Near Threatened. It is declining due to habitat loss and its population is increasingly fragmented. Although it is present in protected reserves, it is not known whether the habitat within these reserves is enough to support viable populations, and some of the reserves themselves are isolated from one another.

The widely used zoological management system, ZIMS, puts the global zoo population at 34.25.7, across 19 facilities. That means 34 cocks, 25 hens and seven birds of unknown sex. Seven out of those 19 facilities are in the UK and, in addition, there are numerous private owners of this species.