Hunter Activity and Harvest Report for 2014-15 and 2015-16 Seasons Released
The latest Migratory Bird Hunting Activity and Harvest Report has been released, reporting that nearly 13.3 million ducks were harvested in the United States in 2014, with a decrease to nearly 11 million ducks harvested in 2015. The number of harvested geese was over 3.3 million nationally in 2014, decreasing to just over 2.5 million geese in 2015.
In addition to downloading the full report, you can also generate custom harvest trends reports to quickly and easily view the information that is important to you. With these custom reports, you can view harvest trends for a specific species in a specific state; or you can view results for all ducks or all geese on a national level or within a selected flyway; or you can see the total of all ducks and geese at the national level. Results from these custom reports are presented in line graph format to easily illustrate harvest trends from 1961 through 2014. To view harvest activity reports for previous years, visit the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Migratory Bird Management website.
2017 Adaptive Harvest Management Report
This hard copy report provides waterfowl managers and the public with information about the use of Adaptive Harvest Management for setting waterfowl regulations in the United States.
Public Invited to the 2016 Federal Duck Stamp Selection Event
Waterfowlers have the opportunity to view some amazing artwork at the 2016 Federal Duck Stamp Contest event that will be held at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, September 9th and 10th. The event is fully open to the public, including free general admission to the Natural Sciences museum, and will culminate on the 10th in a panel of five judges selecting the artwork that will be featured on this year's Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp (also known as the "Duck Stamp"). The stamp has generated more than $900 million to help protect and conserve over six million acres of wetland, bottomland, and grassland habitat for waterfowl and other birds and wildlife. You can learn much more about the stamp and contest event on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service website or by connecting with the Friends of the Migratory Bird/Duck Stamp, an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to the promotion, preservation, sales, and better understanding of the Duck Stamp.
Celebrate 100 Years of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act
August 16, 2016 is a day worthy of celebration among waterfowlers, as it marks the 100th anniversary of the U.S. signing of the first Migratory Bird Treaty with Great Britain (for Canada). The culmination of an unprecedented movement to protect wildlife wherever it lived, including across international borders, the Treaty set the stage for a century of bird conservation. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is allowing everyone to join in the celebration all week with a series of events and through social media.
Banding Crews Encounter Wet and Muddy Conditions in Western Canada
Mark Koneff, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Division Chief of Migratory Bird Surveys is in Saskatchewan, Canada with several other pilot biologists you'll recognize from their contributions to our flight logs to band ducks for the annual waterfowl banding project. Banding ducks is part of the effort to continue gathering knowledge for better management of waterfowl, providing information on population estimates, migration patterns, life span, survivability, productivity, and disease prevalence. The Division of Migratory Bird Management undertakes a number of surveys in conjunction with the USFWS Regional Offices, the Canadian Wildlife Service, and State and Provincial wildlife-management agencies. Mark recently took a moment to report in on the conditions the banding crews are observing.
Using the Bands Across America search tools found on this site, you can query and map waterfowl banding data as recent as this past spring all the way back to 1914.
Your search of nearly 3.8 million banding records can be narrowed or expanded using multiple criteria to easily see banding and recovery locations. All results are plotted on a scalable map, offering critical information for waterfowl biologists monitoring populations across the continent.
Got Bands?
Find banding and recovery locations for your flyway or state at Bands Across America.