At its May meeting, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) approved changes to make state rules reflect the federal frameworks for the 2025-26 migratory bird hunting seasons. Changes for this year include removing the September teal-only hunting days, maximizing falconry days and increasing the daily bag limit on pintails from one to three.

Migratory bird hunting regulation frameworks are established annually by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, incorporating input from the states through the Flyway Council system. These frameworks serve as the foundation for Florida’s migratory bird hunting regulations, and changes at the federal level typically require the FWC to approve rule amendments to remain in compliance. The September teal-only hunting days were removed because the blue-winged teal breeding population estimate for 2024 is 4.599 million. USFWS guidelines dictate that when the blue-winged teal population estimate is between 3.3 and 4.7 million birds, Florida may retain its five teal and wood duck hunting days but may not have any additional teal-only days.

The required reduction in teal-only days also resulted in the loss of falconry days since the two are linked in the state rule. To compensate for this, this rule amendment adds four falconry days to the current season to provide falconers the maximum number of days allowable.

The daily bag limit on pintails was increased to three based on the Interim Northern Pintail Harvest Strategy. This strategy allows a three-bird daily bag limit in the Atlantic Flyway, which Florida is a part of, if the population status enables the pintail season to also be open in North America’s other three flyways.

For more information on waterfowl hunting and management in Florida, visit MyFWC.com/Duck.