| Window | Dates | Days |
|---|---|---|
| Window 1 | 24 OCT – 31 OCT 2026 | 8d |
| Window 2 | 03 NOV – 05 DEC 2026 | 33d |
| Window 3 | 07 NOV – 05 DEC 2026 | 29d |
| Window 4 | 19 DEC – 31 DEC 2026 | 13d |
As publishedNorth Zone: Oct 24–Oct 31, 2026 & Nov 3–Dec 5, 2026; South Zone: Nov 7–Dec 5, 2026 & Dec 19–Dec 31, 2026 (NJDEP proposed, Mar 5 2026)
Dates below come from NJDEP's own "Proposed New Jersey 2026-27 Migratory Bird Seasons" document -- the most current NJDEP season-setting data available, though still proposed rather than finalized as of this listing; public comment closed April 8, 2026 and the proposal was slated for the NJ Fish & Game Council's April 14, 2026 meeting. Zones: North Zone and South Zone, each with two split segments. 2025-26 reference dates (for comparison, NOT this year): North Zone Oct. 18–Oct. 25 & Oct. 28–Nov. 29; South Zone Nov. 8–Dec. 6 & Dec. 20–Jan. 1. HIP certification required (valid Sept. 1–Apr. 15).
New Jersey's woodcock geography has three genuinely different shapes layered on top of each other, not one region: a hard regulatory hunting-zone split (North/South, per NJDEP's Woodcock Hunting Zone webmap), a nationally recognized fall migration stopover/corridor along the Cape May peninsula and Delaware Bay shore (a USGS-documented radio-telemetry study site, independent of any hunting-zone claim), and a targeted early-successional habitat-restoration program at Assunpink WMA in central NJ. NJDEP's own ruffed grouse page separately confirms woodcock shares grouse's young-forest habitat constraint statewide (only ~100,000 of NJ's 2 million forested acres qualify as young-forest age class).
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