As publishedNov 23, 2026 - Feb 28, 2027 (pen-raised/released birds only per official guide; codified text says season may end 2nd Saturday of Feb instead - see note)
It is unlawful to hunt wild quail in Delaware; only pen-raised and released birds may be taken, and only under a Division permit. Delaware's codified regulation (7 Del. Admin. Code 3900-4.0, as mirrored by Cornell LII) states the season runs through 'the second Saturday of February,' but the official 2026/27 printed Hunting & Trapping Guide (published 2026-06-29, more current/season-specific) states Nov 23, 2026 - Feb 28, 2027, matching the pheasant season end date. The guide is treated as authoritative for this cycle; the discrepancy is flagged for review.
DNREC's Cedar Swamp Wildlife Area restoration (prescribed fire, invasive-species removal, begun 2009) has grown the local wild quail population from 'dozens' 15 years ago to roughly 800 birds today, per DNREC wildlife biologist Eric Ludwig. DNREC is now extending the same habitat work along the Delaware Bayshore corridor (New Castle to south of Milford) and has documented a newly detected small population at Marshy Hope Wildlife Area (east of Bridgeville), with a Sussex County site also under consideration, per a syndicated report dated June 24, 2026. This is a single restoration-area narrative, not a statewide census or a numeric hunter-facing forecast -- no DNREC-published pre-season outlook document exists (confirmed absence, separate from this habitat-progress narrative) -- but it is a real, dated 2026 signal of local population growth and geographic expansion, treated as researched here the same way Alabama's Jan 2026 narrative article was in the prior Tier B batch.
targeted habitat restoration (prescribed fire, invasive-species removal)