Alabama dove season 2026

Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR) manages public dove hunting on Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) across the state. All fields are walk-in public access requiring only a valid hunting license and HIP registration. Alabama operates a two-zone system with different opening dates: North Zone opens September 5 afternoon-only, South Zone opens September 12 afternoon-only. The state defines the South Zone as Baldwin, Coffee, Covington, Dale, Escambia, Geneva, Henry, Houston, and Mobile counties; all other counties comprise the North Zone. All fields observe the same afternoon-only opening date restriction in their respective zones (12:00 noon to sunset). Field lists and specific hunting date restrictions vary by WMA.

ADCNR publishes the current list here

Alabama's dove season is administratively split into a North Zone (58 counties) and South Zone (9 southernmost counties), but that split is purely a season-timing device -- the zones open about a week apart and otherwise share identical structure and limits, not a population-density claim. The real sub-state signal comes from the Alabama Cooperative Extension System: doves winter statewide but a much larger concentration migrates in each winter, and cold weather pushes birds toward the Gulf Coast; nesting also continues year-round in the state's extreme southern counties, unlike the rest of the state. That Gulf Coast winter-concentration finding overlaps closely with the South Zone's own county list. ADCNR also maintains public dove fields and limited-quota Special Opportunity Areas scattered across the state as an access layer on top of the general season, not a density claim.