Grass and picked corn under a high plains sky, New Jersey — Grass and picked corn under a high plains sky, New JerseyOwn work · CC BY-SA 4.0

New Jersey

Species on recordOpen now0Classified6Record year2026

Issuing agencyNew Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlifedep.nj.gov/njfwRecord year 2026

The reason people drive here

Ring-necked pheasant

Ring-necked pheasant

#1Ring-necked pheasantRing-necked pheasant is an adaptable bird with no single cover type: grassy roadsides and ditches for spring nesting, hayfields as they green up, and dense cattail marsh or stiff native grass for winter. Cover use shifts by season more than any one habitat matters.

2026-27 season dates not yet published

44 statesUpland

Every bird classified here

Species run

Status is computed from the published dates, not stored — a stale build cannot show an ended season as open.

Ring-necked pheasant

#1Ring-necked pheasantRing-necked pheasant is an adaptable bird with no single cover type: grassy roadsides and ditches for spring nesting, hayfields as they green up, and dense cattail marsh or stiff native grass for winter. Cover use shifts by season more than any one habitat matters.

2026-27 season dates not yet published

44 statesUpland

Chukar

#7ChukarChukar live in steep, dry, rocky country: canyon walls, talus slopes, rimrock, and cheatgrass hillsides, usually within reach of a spring or seep. This is terrain-first hunting; expect a serious climb wherever chukar are found.

2026-27 season dates not yet published

24 statesUpland

Gray (Hungarian) partridge

#8Gray (Hungarian) partridgeGray (Hungarian) partridge is an edge species of open farm country: hayfields, small grain, and row crops broken up by fencerows, shelterbelts, and grassy margins. Coveys are sedentary, rarely ranging more than a mile from home.

2026-27 season dates not yet published

23 statesUpland

Northern bobwhite quail

#2Northern bobwhite quailNorthern bobwhite needs early-successional habitat: weedy fields, thinned pine woods, fallow field borders, and hedgerows, wherever disturbance has reset the ground to brushy young growth. Birds shelter in dense cover and walk out into adjacent open ground to feed.

Wild population closed statewide (standing); stocked-hunt 2026-27 dates not yet published

42 statesUpland

Ruffed grouse

#3Ruffed grouseRuffed grouse depends on young, dense deciduous forest, especially aspen roughly 6 to 16 years past a cut or disturbance. Birds concentrate at edges, where young regrowth meets older timber or a brushy swamp, rather than in open ground.

Closed statewide, no exceptions (standing, habitat-driven)

39 statesUpland

American woodcock

#10American woodcockAmerican woodcock favor damp, early-successional cover: alder swales, regenerating cuts, and creek-bottom edges where the soil stays moist enough to hold earthworms. Look along the margins of young aspen or hardwood regrowth rather than deep in the thickest brush.

Opens in 19 days

Varies by hunter/zone/method — see detail38 statesFederal framework

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