PointsAfieldSeason2026–27

North Dakota · UplandGreater prairie-chicken

Closed for 2026
Season 2026-27
0 windows on one classification

Season windows

Awaiting survey — No dated season on record

This state's classification carries no date range for the species.

What you may take, and when

Take and hours

License and requirements

Bag limit
Awaiting survey
Exceptions posted at the boundary

ND G&F: "Pinnated grouse (Prairie Chicken) season will be closed in 2026." Small residual populations remain in Grand Forks County and the Sheyenne National Grasslands, but the state says there is no longer enough intact tallgrass prairie to support a huntable population. Only ND's greater prairie-chicken occurs here; lesser prairie-chicken is not an ND species.

Where the birds are

Finding Greater prairie-chicken in North Dakota

Range and concentration

North Dakota's greater prairie-chicken population is confined to two disjunct areas in the eastern part of the state, and the hunting season has been closed indefinitely — this is a range/conservation-status answer, not a density-region breakdown, since there is no huntable population to map a density gradient for. ND Game and Fish's own species page calls the population "regionally and globally imperiled" and "at-risk of extirpation from North Dakota," with a decline of more than 50% since 1970.

Population outlook

North Dakota 2026

Awaiting survey — North Dakota 2026

ND G&F's own June 25, 2026 'Grouse Surveys' page confirms active spring lek ground counts continue in Grand Forks County and the Sheyenne National Grasslands, and that both prairie-chicken and sage-grouse seasons remain closed for insufficient population -- but unlike the same report's sharp-tailed grouse and ruffed grouse sections, it gives no discrete lek count or year-over-year percentage for prairie-chicken specifically. No 2026 numeric lek count (booming grounds, males observed) has been published; the newest is a 2019 reference of 60 leks surveyed. Active monitoring, no dated numeric report -- same pattern of monitoring continuing despite closure already seen in IL/CO/MO/KS/NE.

Issuing agencyNorth Dakota Game and Fish Departmentgf.nd.govRecord year 2026
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