| Window | Dates | Days |
|---|---|---|
| Season | 01 OCT – 08 NOV 2026 | 39d |
As publishedOct 1, 2026 - Nov 8, 2026 (Area 1 only)
Only open in Area 1 (parts of Bingham, Bonneville, Clark, Jefferson, Power, Cassia counties and all of Bannock, Bear Lake, Caribou, Franklin, Fremont, Madison, Oneida, Teton counties). Area 2 (remainder of the state) is CLOSED, including Twin Falls County, Owyhee County, most of Cassia County, and Minidoka County despite re-introduced populations there. Requires a Sharp-tailed Grouse Permit Validation in addition to a hunting license.
Columbian sharp-tailed grouse's Idaho range has contracted sharply from its historical extent across southern and western Idaho, north to the Palouse Prairie, to a legally huntable core confined to southeastern Idaho counties. IDFG's own 2026-27 brochure defines the open Area 1 precisely by county/interstate boundaries in the southeast corner of the state, while Area 2, covering the remainder of the state, is closed. The brochure also documents a second, separate, and entirely closed set of populations from active reintroduction/re-establishment efforts in south-central Idaho: southern Twin Falls County, southeastern Owyhee County, most of Cassia County, and around Split Butte in Minidoka County. All are explicitly closed to hunting even though birds are present, as is a small isolated cluster near Midvale in southwest Idaho close to the Oregon border.
Idaho's sharp-tailed grouse season is open only in Area 1, covering parts of Bingham, Bonneville, Clark, Jefferson, Power, and Cassia counties plus all of Bannock, Bear Lake, Caribou, Franklin, Fremont, Madison, Oneida, and Teton counties. Area 2, the rest of the state, stays closed, including Twin Falls, Owyhee, most of Cassia, and Minidoka counties despite documented re-introduced populations there. A Sharp-tailed Grouse Permit Validation is required on top of a hunting license. Season runs October 1 through November 8, 2026, 8 days longer than the historical opener, with a daily bag of 2 and 6 in possession. IDFG's statewide forecast, published September 4, 2026, reports sharp-tailed grouse by name in one region, the Magic Valley, where recruitment seems to be down and few broods were observed this year. That finding matches the broader picture the state's own prairie grouse specialist has laid out for 2026: all sage grouse and sharp-tailed grouse habitat in Idaho is currently in some stage of drought, most of it extreme to exceptional, after nesting and brood-rearing conditions this year came in even drier than an already-down 2025. The state's biologists are expecting similar or lower productivity than last year, with harvest for both species down from recent years. 2025's harvest was already off more than 30% from 2024 for both sharp-tailed grouse and sage grouse. One bright spot worth knowing: the Salmon Region, the northern part of the Upper Snake Region, and the far corner of the Southeast Region are named as comparatively less drought-affected than the rest of the state's sharp-tailed grouse range.
Statewide drought. IDFG's own prairie grouse specialist describes sage grouse and sharp-tailed grouse habitat across Idaho as in extreme to exceptional drought this year, on top of an already-down 2025 season, and the state's one 2026 regional finding for this species, in the Magic Valley, reads down as well.
Join the waitlist and tell us what you’re working on — the planner reads it first once your access opens.
Free, invite-gated, unsubscribe anytime. See what it returns