This state's classification carries no date range for the species.
Texas's population is Attwater's prairie-chicken, a critically endangered subspecies of greater prairie-chicken found only in Texas coastal prairie. TPWD explicitly lists it among species with no open season.
Texas's greater prairie chicken population is entirely Attwater's prairie chicken (Tympanuchus cupido attwateri), a critically endangered subspecies with no open season anywhere in the state. Historically the bird ranged across roughly six million acres of coastal prairie from the Nueces River north to Louisiana, holding an estimated one million birds in the early 1900s. Both the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's own species page and Wikipedia agree the wild population today survives in only two counties: Colorado County, at the Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge near Eagle Lake, and Goliad County, on private ranchland (the Refugio-Goliad Prairie Conservation Area, anchored by the Dunn O'Connor River Ranch, where a third population was established via 2007-2008 CPCI releases). TPWD's own Attwater's prairie chicken page additionally names Galveston County's Texas City Prairie Preserve among the species' protected coastal-prairie habitat, but this predates the FWS/Wikipedia current-population statements and was not corroborated as holding a present-day wild population by either more-current source, so it counts as protected historic habitat rather than a third current site. Roughly 300 captive-reared birds are released annually across the two current sites to supplement the wild population, which has climbed from a 2005 low of 40 birds to an estimated 350 in 2026.
Texas's population is Attwater's prairie-chicken (critically endangered subspecies), closed to hunting statewide but under active monitoring. At The Nature Conservancy's Refugio-Goliad Prairie Project reintroduction site near Goliad, the total population count rose from 82 birds (2024) to 102 (2025) to 138 (2026), per TNC's own project page (as of 2026-08-19) -- a third consecutive annual increase at that specific site, distinct from the original Attwater NWR refuge population (most recently counted in 2021 at 89 booming males / ~178-bird estimate, not independently updated since). About 17-20% of 2025's males were wild-produced, per the same source.
Ongoing habitat restoration and reintroduction management at the Refugio-Goliad site
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