Collection of Hunter-Harvested Wings Informs Abundance, Conservation Actions
Fall has officially arrived and with it more opportunities for upland game bird hunting. California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) biologists expect good hunting seasons for quail and chukar in 2026-27.
California has three native species of quail — mountain, California and Gambel’s quail. At least one quail species can be found in every part of the state, offering close-to-home hunting opportunities for Californians no matter where they live. Long seasons that extend into 2027 add to the abundance of opportunities.
California is also home to introduced chukar partridge populations that are native to parts of Asia and the Middle East. Chukar were introduced into California beginning in the 1930s and took hold in areas that most closely resembled their native lands — the arid, steep, rocky terrain in the Modoc Plateau south into the Mojave Desert and Death Valley.
California is divided into three quail hunt zones. Zone 1 opened for mountain quail Sept.12. Zone 2 opened for both mountain and California quail on Sept. 26. On Saturday, Oct. 17, all quail species and chukar are open to hunting statewide. The general season runs through Jan. 31. Hunters may take up to 10 quail per day in any species combination. The daily chukar bag limit is six birds.
CDFW staff use data from the North American Breeding Bird Survey to understand upland game bird abundance trends. Recently, CDFW updated models with the 2025 data. Based on these models, mountain quail and chukar populations declined in 2025, while California and Gambel’s quail populations increased slightly. Across the four species, trends decreased in the desert, while the North Coast trended up for mountain and California quail, and the Modoc Plateau trended up for quail and chukar.
CDFW continues to deploy upland game bird wing collection barrels throughout the state on select public hunting lands with good quail populations, encouraging hunters to donate a wing from each harvested bird. From the wing samples CDFW can determine age ratios and the abundance of young birds to adult birds in the population, which helps in understanding quail and chukar productivity for the previous breeding season. Estimating productivity can be used to indicate which areas and which years hunters may enjoy better harvest opportunities. The samples can also be used to help CDFW prioritize conservation efforts for low productivity populations.
During the 2025-26 hunt season, CDFW deployed wing barrels at 13 sites and collected 25 mountain quail wings, 504 California quail wings, four Gambel’s quail wings and seven chukar wings from 196 hunters. Similar to last year, California quail productivity varied across the state, with higher productivity at sites around the Sutter Buttes and on the east slope of the Sierra Nevada. However, for other species the sample size was too small to properly evaluate productivity. This summer, biologists saw quail hatches both earlier and later than the peak hatching window, providing interesting dynamics for productivity models.
In addition to a valid California hunting license, an upland game bird validation is required for hunting quail and chukar in California. The money generated from the sale of the upland game bird validation/stamp is dedicated to upland game bird-related conservation projects, education, hunting opportunities and outreach.
In addition to public hunting opportunities available on many CDFW wildlife areas and some ecological reserves, CDFW offers a number of special quail and chukar hunts throughout the season along with opportunities on private land through the SHARE Program.
For more information on hunting seasons and other regulations, visit CDFW’s Upland Game Bird Hunting web page. As a reminder, only non-lead ammunition may be used when hunting quail, chukar or any other species with a firearm in California.
###
Media Contacts:
Katherine Miller, CDFW Wildlife Branch, (916) 261-5019
Peter Tira, CDFW Communications, (916) 215-3858