As publishedOct 1–Feb 28 (yellow zone, cocks & hens); Oct 17–Feb 28 (light-blue zone, cocks & hens); Oct 17–Dec 31 (green zone, cocks only); Nov 1–Dec 31 (orange/dark-blue Long Island zones, cocks only east of Shinnecock Canal & Inlet)
Zone/color-coded regulations: cocks only in the western NY 'green' zone and east of Shinnecock Canal & Inlet (dark blue); cocks & hens permitted in the yellow/light-blue/orange zones. Youth hunt dates vary by zone (Sept 26-27, Oct 10-11, or Oct 24-25); WMU 2A has no youth hunt (falconry only). DEC stocks ~50,000 pen-raised pheasants annually across 100+ public hunting sites from the Reynolds Game Farm near Ithaca.
Confirmed absence of a wild-population survey -- DEC's own species page states wild pheasants “no longer exist in populations large enough to warrant active management.” DEC's annual stocking program is the subject of a draft 2026-2035 Strategic Plan for Pheasant Stocking, which explicitly reframes the program's goal as hunter recruitment/retention rather than wild-population restoration or forecasting.