BirdTrout

American woodcock Hunting in Wisconsin

Scolopax minor

Open September 19, 2026 to November 2, 2026 — 45 days afield. In Wisconsin it is a stronghold.

Last updated 2026-08-24 · from WDNR data · 2026 season year

The bird
Where it is
Season and limits
Where to hunt it
Hours, orange and licences
The questions
By region
Other states

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 carries the page it was read from.

Where it is in Wisconsin

a stronghold An editorial summary of the bird's status in this state — not a population estimate and not a survey.

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.

Open this map in the app

Stronghold Regular Present Occasional No records The 10 units in the table below

35 of 43 subbasins draining Wisconsin carry a american woodcock record. Observed occurrences, not a range map and not a habitat model. Scored as a share of all bird records in the same cell, so a well-watched county does not read as better bird country than an unwatched one. The mesh is the subbasin — the unit this app scores in — and not the state line, so its edge is a drainage divide rather than a border. The green is the 10 public units in the table below, drawn as PAD-US records their boundaries: context, not permission.

Season and limits

WDNR's own dates for the 2026 season year, read from WDNR. Wisconsin lists this season as American woodcock.

Segment	Opens	Closes	Days
Statewide	September 19, 2026	November 2, 2026	45

Bag limit: not shown No single bag limit is shown for it here. Where WDNR publishes one that changes by zone or partway through the season, the figures are in the notes below and this page will not pick one of them; where it publishes none at all, this page leaves it empty rather than guess — a wrong limit is worse than a missing one, because it looks researched. Check the Wisconsin Small Game Hunting Regulations.
Hunter orange: required At least 50% of clothing above the waist, and any head covering, must be blaze orange or fluorescent pink any time a firearm deer season is in progress. This applies to small game and archery hunters, not only to deer hunters. Waterfowl hunters are exempt.
Stamps: HIP registration

Wisconsin requires blaze orange or fluorescent pink only while a firearm deer season is in progress — but then it applies to small game hunters too. This app flags orange as required for the whole season because missing it during gun deer season is the dangerous error. Check the gun deer dates.
Woodcock is a migratory bird, so its limit is set federally and published on WDNR's migratory bird table rather than the upland one. This app does not carry that table, so no figure is shown.
Migratory bird: a federal HIP registration is required in addition to the small game licence.

Where to hunt it

Wisconsin's huntable public land, whole. WDNR does not publish a per-parcel species list, so this is not filtered to american woodcock — it is every unit this app draws as legal to hunt.

Class	Units	Acres
County forest	47	2,360,239
National forest	4	1,526,746
State forest	121	553,014
State wildlife area	335	529,548
Total	507	4,969,547

PAD-US says who manages a parcel, not where its boundary runs on the ground and not whether a unit carries a local closure. Context, not permission — check the unit with WDNR before you park.

Hours, orange and licences

Shooting hours

not carried

WDNR publishes Wisconsin's shooting hours as a table by date rather than as a single sentence, and this app holds no copy of that table. We do not retype it here from memory: the hours move by a few minutes every week of the season, and a wrong minute at either end of the day is a citation. Read the table in the regulations before opening day. WDNR

Licences

Small game licence
Everyone hunting small game — Bought through Go Wild, WDNR's licence system.
Hunter education certificate
Anyone born on or after 1 January 1973 — Or a mentored hunting licence, which requires a qualified mentor within arm's reach.
Federal HIP registration
Woodcock and every other migratory bird — Free registration with the federal harvest survey.
Pheasant stamp
Pheasant hunters on WDNR-stocked land — Required in addition to the small game licence to hunt land the state stocks.

The questions under this one

A page each, because each one is its own search. This page is the whole picture; those answer one thing and show the rows behind the answer.