Migratory Bird Hunting Activity and Harvest during the 2025-26 Hunting Seasons

Migratory bird harvest in the United States (the 48 conterminous United States, plus Alaska) is monitored though three programs that collectively function to produce estimates of harvest at desired management scales for selected combinations of species, age, and sex, as well as measures of hunter activity (e.g., days spent afield). 

This report presents results from the Harvest Information Program (HIP), Migratory Bird Harvest Survey (MBHS), and Parts Collection Survey (PCS) for the 2025-26 hunting season. These programs exist to meet, in part, statutory requirements under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (16 U.S.C. 703–712) to ensure that the harvest of migratory game birds is commensurate with their ability to sustain adequate populations and provide the best available information regarding the harvest of migratory birds. Further, this information is used to support model development for the Adaptive Harvest Management process. The results from the MBHS and those composited from the MBHS and PCS are preliminary, pending

1. an evaluation of bias in survey responses, in particular changes in non-response bias;
2. final counts of the number of HIP registrants in each state for each season; and
3. complete audits of all survey response data.

Results are reported at the management unit and national scales. This is a departure from previous years, but better aligns with the objectives of the Harvest Survey program and the scales at which management decisions are made. Estimates generated at finer scales than these are often imprecise and sensitive to survey response rates. Precision is not estimable at finer scales under the current estimation framework. State-specific results as well as full time-series are available in data books.