Louisiana Duck Season 2026-27: West Zone, East Zone, and a New Whistling Duck Season
Louisiana is not one duck forecast. The coast runs on gadwall, the north runs on mallard, and the 2026-27 season now includes a new dedicated hunt for a bird that is neither.
Updated September 3, 2026. Season dates cite the agency sources listed at the bottom of this page.
2026-27 Louisiana waterfowl dates
West Zone
November 14 to December 6, 2026, then December 19, 2026 to January 24, 2027
Youth and veterans: November 7, 2026 and January 30, 2027.
East Zone
November 21 to December 6, 2026, then December 19, 2026 to January 31, 2027
Youth and veterans: November 14, 2026 and February 6, 2027, a different pair of dates than the West Zone.
Special early teal season
September 19-27, 2026
Statewide.
Black-Bellied Whistling Duck season
October 3-11, 2026
New this year. Special permit required, statewide, bag 4 and possession 12. A dedicated season for a bird that is not a duck-season staple almost anywhere else DuckCast models.
LDWF publishes these on its own Quick Reference Guide alongside every other confirmed season on the page, but the state directory this page pulls from still marks Louisiana’s dates proposed rather than final. Bag and possession limits, and the full goose and conservation-order calendar, are on the LDWF page itself.
Why this page will not tell you one migration date
LDWF’s November 2023 coastal count found mallard made up about one percent of the ducks in Louisiana’s coastal marsh, against 23 percent gadwall and 15 percent pintail. Asking DuckCast’s engine about mallard timing there produces a low, flat number, not because the hunting is poor but because it is the wrong bird. The coast is gadwall country, pintail a close second. The state’s northern parishes, Catahoula country up through the Red River, are the more familiar Mississippi Flyway story: real mallard ground, wintering birds pushed south by freeze upstream.
So the timing below is split by species as well as by geography, because averaging gadwall-on-the-coast and mallard-in-the-north into one statewide number would misrepresent both halves of the state.
DuckCast watches 8 upstream stations across the lower valley for the freeze line that decides the northern half of this timing. How the score weighs it.
Timing where we actually model it
These windows come from the same per-region season curves the live DuckCast forecast runs on, sampled with the species each area actually has rather than mallard everywhere.
The coast, on gadwall
The coastal marsh: Southwest Coastal Marsh, Rice Prairie, Atchafalaya, Terrebonne and Lafourche, Barataria and Delacroix
Gadwall peak around January 17; prime conditions from about December 9 to February 4
This is the species the coast actually has. LDWF's November 2023 coastal count put gadwall at 23 percent of the birds here against mallard's 1 percent, so a mallard-only forecast would show these five regions as consistently weak when the marsh is, in fact, full. Pintail runs a close second on the coast, peaking about a month earlier around December 15.
The north, on mallard
The north: Catahoula and Little River, Northeast Delta, Ouachita and Boeuf, Red River and Northwest
Mallard peak around January 14; prime from about December 15 to January 29
Conventional mallard country, and the same wintering-ground pattern Arkansas and Mississippi show: a late, sharp peak driven by freeze pushing birds out of everything upstream rather than by a calendar date.
Common questions
When is duck season in Louisiana for 2026-27?
The West Zone runs November 14 to December 6, 2026, then December 19, 2026 through January 24, 2027. The East Zone runs November 21 to December 6, 2026, then December 19, 2026 through January 31, 2027. Special early teal season is September 19-27, 2026, statewide. LDWF has published these as this year's dates; the state's directory of season dates by state marks Louisiana proposed rather than final, which is how the agency itself presented them.
What is the Black-Bellied Whistling Duck season?
A new, dedicated season, October 3-11, 2026, statewide, requiring a special permit, with a daily bag of 4 and possession of 12. Black-bellied whistling ducks are a distinct species from the ducks a regular season targets, and Louisiana holds a large enough resident and wintering population to justify hunting them on their own calendar rather than folding them into the regular duck season.
Are Louisiana's youth and veteran duck hunt dates the same in both zones?
No, and this is easy to get wrong from a source that only lists one pair of dates. The West Zone's youth and veteran hunt is November 7, 2026 and January 30, 2027. The East Zone's is different: November 14, 2026 and February 6, 2027.
What kind of ducks are actually in coastal Louisiana?
Mostly not mallards. LDWF's November 2023 coastal count put gadwall at 137,000 birds (23 percent of what was counted), pintail at 89,000 (15 percent), and mallard at just 6,000 (1 percent). Gadwall is the more useful bird to plan around there, pintail close behind it, and the DuckCast forecast for the state's five coastal regions is built on gadwall rather than mallard for exactly that reason.
Is duck hunting different in coastal Louisiana than in the north of the state?
Genuinely, not just by degree. The coast, from the Atchafalaya Basin to Barataria and Delacroix, is gadwall country, peaking around January 17 in the DuckCast curves, with pintail a close second peaking about a month earlier around December 15. The north, from the Red River country to the Northeast Delta, is mallard country in the more familiar Mississippi Flyway sense, peaking around January 14 as birds get pushed out of everything upstream by freeze. They are close to two different forecasts inside one state.
When do ducks actually arrive in Louisiana?
It depends which species and which part of the state. Gadwall on the coast peak around January 17, with prime conditions from early December into early February. Pintail on that same coast peaks about a month earlier, around December 15. Mallard in the north peak around January 14, prime from mid-December into late January. There is no single answer for the whole state, which is why this page splits it rather than averaging it into one number.
DuckCast forecasts Louisiana nightly
Regional migration scores built from live weather, the upstream freeze line, crop progress and hunter reports, then checked against NEXRAD radar to see whether birds actually moved after dark. Dates tell you when the season is open; the forecast tells you which mornings inside it are worth burning a vacation day on.
Sources
- Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, waterfowl
- Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, seasons and regulations quick reference guide
Season dates and regulations change, and this page is not a legal reference. Verify with the agency links above before you hunt.