This state's classification carries no date range for the species.
Legal game bird (listed as 'California Valley Quail' in exhibits), bag combined with Gambel's and Japanese quail. 2026-27 DOFAW season announcement not yet published as of 2026-08-29. 2025-26 reference: Nov 1, 2025 - Jan 25, 2026, weekends + state holidays (Wed/Thu also open on Hawai'i Island Units A/G/PTA and private land statewide). This is also the species depicted on the 2026-2027 Hawaii Game Bird Stamp (contest winner announced April 2026). DOFAW's last 5 years of announcements all came out in October, so this isn't overdue yet.
California quail (introduced from 1818 onward) persist as established populations on Hawai'i Island, Moloka'i, Maui, and Kaua'i, per the Bishop Museum's Pyle & Pyle "Birds of the Hawaiian Islands" reference monograph — the state's own authoritative ornithological status/distribution source. Hawai'i Island historically held by far the largest population (an estimated 62,550 birds in 1947, versus 11,590 on Moloka'i and 2,600 on Maui the same year). The species also persists on privately-owned Ni'ihau, which is not open to public access or hunting of any kind and is therefore not written as a region here. It was extirpated from O'ahu by the 1940s despite repeated introductions, and never became established on Lana'i (recent Lana'i sightings are attributed to the similar Gambel's quail instead). DOFAW's public game-bird hunting units on the four islands with established populations map onto the same general areas described in the ornithological literature.
No formal population survey program exists for this species in this state.
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