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Virginia american woodcock regulations, 2026–27
Last updated 2026-09-24 · from VDWR data · 2026–27 licence year
Virginia's 2026–27 american woodcock season runs November 11, 2026 to January 18, 2027 — 45 days afield. The bag is 3 per day, 9 in possession. Hunter orange is required. Stamps: Federal HIP registration. Read against the 2026–27 licence year, from VDWR.
Season and limits
- Season
- American woodcock — November 11, 2026 to January 18, 2027
- Bag limit
- 3 per day, 9 in possession
- Hunter orange
- required Every hunter, and anyone accompanying one, must wear a solid blaze orange or blaze pink hat, or solid blaze upper-body clothing visible from 360 degrees, or display at least 100 square inches of solid blaze material at shoulder level, visible from 360 degrees.
- Stamps
- Federal HIP registration
- Sundays
- Virginia allows Sunday hunting, with two exceptions: not within 200 yards of a house of worship, and not for deer or bear with dogs.
- Virginia requires solid blaze orange or blaze pink — a hat, 360-degree upper-body clothing, or 100 square inches at shoulder level. Waterfowl and dove hunters are exempt; upland bird hunters are not.
- Migratory bird: HIP registration is required in addition to the hunting licence, and it lapses every July 1.
- Two segments, split around the late-December break. The birds in the second are flight birds moving through on cold fronts, not Virginia's own.
Licences
- Hunting licence
Everyone, resident or not — Bought through Go Outdoors Virginia, and what every other permit is added to. - Hunter education certificate
Anyone born on or after 1 January 1961, and every hunter under 16 — Or an apprentice licence, which lets an uncertified hunter hunt under supervision. - Federal HIP registration
Woodcock and every other migratory bird — Free, and it lapses every July 1 — last season's registration is not this season's. - Public land permits
Hunters on national forest and some WMAs — Virginia sells a separate access permit for national forest and DWR land. Check which your ground needs before you park.
The other questions
- How to hunt american woodcock in Virginia
- When does Virginia's 2026–27 american woodcock season open?
- Where to hunt american woodcock in Virginia
- Virginia american woodcock hunting report
- American woodcock hunting in Virginia — the whole picture
- American woodcock — biology, range and how it is hunted
By region
- American woodcock hunting in the Shenandoah Valley
- American woodcock hunting in the Virginia Piedmont