The Daurian Partridge is a ground-dwelling bird of dry grassland and farmland in China. It forms winter coveys, and males have seasonal facial markings.
It has a rounded body and short tail. Males show an orange beard-like marking in autumn and winter.
Daurian Partridges use grassland, farmland and surrounding scrub. Around Lake Khanka in Russia’s Primorsky region, winter flocks occupy field margins with shrubs and sparse woodland. In mild, low-snow winters, birds remain locally or move short distances to shallower snow.
During the cold, snowy winter of 1967–1968, a researcher found 12–15 birds on a ploughed rice field near Lake Khanka on 4 February 1968. Snow tracks indicated that they moved in tightly packed groups of four or five.
The birds sat in hollows between soil clods at the bottom of an irrigation ditch. Rice grains were found in the crops of birds collected in the area. These observations document both resting places and farmland food used during that winter.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
A 2016 report on the eastern subspecies identified habitat changes from agricultural development and food shortages during severe snowy winters as regional concerns. Retaining field-margin vegetation and winter feeding habitat, together with seasonal surveys, can inform local conservation. The authors combined field observations with interviews.