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American woodcock

Scolopax minor

American woodcock (Scolopax minor) is present in all 5 states this app covers, and every one of them sets a season for it. It is strongest in Michigan, where it is a stronghold. The longest season is North Carolina's at 52 days, December 10, 2026 to January 30, 2027.

Last updated 2026-09-24 · seasons from each state's own agency

• The bird
• State by state
• Cover and tactics
• By region

The bird

A migratory shorebird that gave up the shore for wet woods, and the one bird on this list no state sets its own season for — the dates come down from the federal flyway framework. It wants damp alder and dogwood bottoms with soil soft enough to probe, and it moves on cold fronts rather than living anywhere all season. Unmistakable in the hand: a bill nearly a third of its body length, and eyes set so far back it can see behind itself while feeding.

Written for this app. Not an agency description and not a regulation — everything below this point that is a rule or a date carries the agency it was read from.

State by state

The comparison this page exists for. The band is an editorial summary of the bird's status on the same five-step scale in every state — not a population estimate — and the season is that state's own, against that state's own licence or season year, which do not line up with each other.

A bag this app cannot state as one number is left empty here rather than guessed. Some of these states publish none for a species; others publish one that changes by zone, or partway through the season, and no single figure would be true of the whole of it. A wrong limit is worse than a missing one, because it looks researched.

American woodcock in Michigan

Both a breeding bird and a flight bird here. Michigan holds some of the densest singing-ground counts in the country, and then the northern birds pour through on top of them in October.

• American woodcock hunting in Michigan — the whole picture
• How to hunt it — Michigan
• When the season opens — Michigan
• Where to hunt it — Michigan
• Regulations — Michigan
• Hunting report — Michigan
• Michigan hunting regulations

American woodcock in Wisconsin

Breeds across the north and centre in the same alder bottoms that hold grouse, which is why the two are so often hunted on one walk.

• American woodcock hunting in Wisconsin — the whole picture
• How to hunt it — Wisconsin
• When the season opens — Wisconsin
• Where to hunt it — Wisconsin
• Regulations — Wisconsin
• Hunting report — Wisconsin
• Wisconsin hunting regulations

American woodcock in Virginia

Statewide, and almost entirely a passage bird — Virginia's season is split into two segments around the turn of the year to sit under the flights rather than over the handful that nest here.

• American woodcock hunting in Virginia — the whole picture
• How to hunt it — Virginia
• When the season opens — Virginia
• Where to hunt it — Virginia
• Regulations — Virginia
• Hunting report — Virginia
• Virginia hunting regulations

American woodcock in North Carolina

Statewide on passage and near the southern end of the Atlantic flyway, which is why the season does not open until December — the birds arrive on hard cold fronts, not on the calendar.

• American woodcock hunting in North Carolina — the whole picture
• How to hunt it — North Carolina
• When the season opens — North Carolina
• Where to hunt it — North Carolina
• Regulations — North Carolina
• Hunting report — North Carolina
• North Carolina hunting regulations

American woodcock in Minnesota

Minnesota is both breeding ground and the top of the Mississippi flyway, so the state holds local birds all season and then the flight birds move through the alder and lowland brush in October.

• American woodcock hunting in Minnesota — the whole picture
• How to hunt it — Minnesota
• When the season opens — Minnesota
• Where to hunt it — Minnesota
• Regulations — Minnesota
• Hunting report — Minnesota
• Minnesota hunting regulations

Cover and tactics

Wet alder runs, damp aspen bottoms and shrub swamp — soft ground the bird can probe for worms. Woodcock cover is often two hundred yards of a creek bottom rather than a whole block of forest.

Hunt the low wet ground inside grouse country, and hunt it again after a cold front: this is a migratory bird and a covert that was empty on Tuesday can hold a flight on Friday. Birds sit tight and flush straight up through the alders.

Pointing dogs shine on woodcock — the bird holds for a point far better than a grouse does, which is why so many dogs are finished on them.

Written for this app, and general to the bird rather than to a state. Where a place changes it, the regional pages below say so.

By region

• American woodcock hunting in Northern Lower Michigan
• American woodcock hunting in the Michigan UP
• American woodcock hunting in the Wisconsin Northwoods
• American woodcock hunting in the Wisconsin Driftless
• American woodcock hunting in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia
• American woodcock hunting in the Virginia Piedmont
• American woodcock hunting in the North Carolina Piedmont

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