The partridge is one of the fowl-like birds. It is related to the pheasant, turkey or hen. But it belongs to the small species. It is only slightly larger than a pigeon. The color is brown from above, the abdomen is light blue-gray. Males have a dark brown horseshoe-shaped spot on their abdomen. The head of the partridge is orange. It is interesting that the partridge forms monogamous pairs. So the cock (male) lives with only one hen (female). Partridges lay around 20 eggs.

About 5 million partridges lived in the Czech Republic 100 years ago. Today we estimate their number at a few tens of thousands. The main reason for their threat is the destruction of the landscape structure in the 1950s. Farmers plowed the borders, destroyed bushes and alleys of trees. And they brought together the small fields into the large fields. The landscape no longer offered partridges enough food and covers. By the way, their food is insects, leaves and seeds of wild plants.

The extinction of the partridge led us to establish the Project ČIŘIKÁNÍ 20 years ago. The name is related to the voice (chirping) of partridges, which sounds something like this: či-řik, či-řik. The main activity of the project is the annual monitoring of the partridge in the Czech Republic. Other activities are related to the support of the species directly in nature.

This nationwide project would not be possible without a number of partners and public support. Some of them work with us to improve the condition of the landscape - and not just for the partridge. Because our healthy landscape is important for people as well. We also have the partridge advisory board, in which there are a number of experts.

Our most popular activity is Adopt a Partridge. We work with breeders who prepare young partridges for release into the wild. We financially support hunters who take proper care of partridges. We finance the activity from donations that we usually receive from the small donors. The adoption is only symbolic and people like it.

The support of the partridge in nature is related to the restoration of the landscape, which we devote a lot to. In addition to the studies at the district level, we also propose specific landscape elements. These are mainly grass belt between fields, bushes or alleys with planting of trees. We have worked on the largest projects near the towns of Písek, Mělník and Přerov. Here we have proposed to implement dozens of measures in the landscape.

We also take care of one landscape element. We have been establishing a new biocorridor on the outskirts of Přerov. We have borrowed land from the city for ten years. We laid a meadow on a piece of the former field and we plant bushes there. The whole area is 5.500 m². The local community from nearby family houses helps us to take care of nature. The project is supported by the city of Přerov and the Olomouc region.

We are a non-profit organization. Most of our work is done by volunteers. We had only a zero budget for several years at the beginning of the Project ČIŘIKÁNÍ. However, the public interest was soon huge and we had concrete results. We started to get subsidies. Finally, we also asked the public for donations. And we were pleasantly surprised. Nowadays this is a professional nature conservation project of national importance.

You can also support us financially.

Thank you very much!

Account number (IBAN): CZ6120100000002900646930

BIC/SWIFT: FIOBCZPPXXX