Texas Duck Migration Forecast

Where TX birds come from

Conditions across Oklahoma and eastern New Mexico usually predict arrivals here 24 to 72 hours out.

DuckCast watches Oklahoma and the southern plains for the freeze and snow that start birds moving, then reads NEXRAD after dark to see whether they actually flew. The upstream picture is why a score can rise here before anything changes in your own sky.

The 9 regions we score in Texas

Every region gets its own daily score. Reports are generalized to the region, so nobody burns your spot.

• High Plains Playas

  Twenty thousand playa basins around Amarillo and Lubbock. A wet autumn makes this some of the best duck ground on the continent and a dry one leaves bare clay.

• Rolling Plains

  Reservoir and stock tank country from Abilene up to the Red River. Big water that holds birds after the shallow playas west of it lock up.

• Blackland Prairie

  The reservoir belt north of Dallas: Ray Roberts, Lewisville, Lavon and Texoma's south shore. Hunted hard, and the birds move between lakes daily.

• Pineywoods

  East Texas timber and the big impoundments, Caddo, Toledo Bend and Sam Rayburn. Flooded green timber when the bottoms take water.

• Post Oak Savannah

  The Brazos and Navasota bottoms between Waco and College Station. Scattered water, and a stopover more than a destination.

• Hill Country and Edwards

  Highland Lakes and the Edwards Plateau tanks. The thinnest duck ground in Texas, and honest about it: divers on the lakes and not much else.

• Upper Coast Rice Prairie

  Katy, Garwood and Eagle Lake rice country behind Galveston Bay. Flooded rice and coastal marsh, and the densest hunting in the state.

• Mid Coast Bays

  Matagorda, San Antonio and Espiritu Santo bays with the prairie behind them. Redheads on the bay grass and pintails on the flats.

• South Texas and Laguna Madre

  The Laguna Madre and the brush country behind it. Hypersaline lagoon that holds the continent's largest redhead concentration, and it never freezes.

Common questions about Texas

When does the duck migration peak in Texas?

DuckCast's season model puts the green-winged teal peak in Texas around early December to mid January. The timing is not uniform across the state: the model peaks High Plains Playas around early December and South Texas and Laguna Madre around mid January, which is why each region carries its own season curve rather than sharing one. That is a modelled typical curve, not a prediction for any single year: the actual push depends on cold fronts and freeze-up upstream, which is what the daily score tracks. Always confirm season dates with Texas Parks and Wildlife.

Where do Texas's ducks come from?

Conditions across Oklahoma and eastern New Mexico usually predict arrivals here 24 to 72 hours out. DuckCast reads conditions across Oklahoma and the southern plains and watches for the freeze that pushes birds south, so a TX hunter sees the push building before it arrives.

Which parts of Texas does DuckCast cover?

All 9 regions: High Plains Playas, Rolling Plains, Blackland Prairie, Pineywoods, Post Oak Savannah, Hill Country and Edwards, Upper Coast Rice Prairie, Mid Coast Bays, South Texas and Laguna Madre. Each gets its own daily score. Locations are always region-level; DuckCast never collects or shows exact hunting spots.

Does DuckCast use weather radar in Texas?

Yes. DuckCast decodes raw NEXRAD Level II volumes from the 7 National Weather Service radar sites covering Texas, and reads how much bird mass lifted off after sunset and which way it tracked. Separately, 8 upstream weather stations across Oklahoma and the southern plains feed the freeze line; those are weather reports, not radar. Radar sees every bird in the air, not just ducks, so read it as evidence that a migration happened rather than a duck count.

When is the best time to duck hunt in Texas?

For green-winged teal, the modelled peak in Texas falls around early December to mid January, and the strongest hunting is usually the weeks on either side of it. The timing is not uniform across the state: the model peaks High Plains Playas around early December and South Texas and Laguna Madre around mid January, which is why each region carries its own season curve rather than sharing one. Inside that window the best mornings follow a cold front with a hard freeze across Oklahoma and the southern plains and a north wind behind it, which is exactly what the daily TX score measures. Season dates are set by Texas Parks and Wildlife, and the peak is a modelled typical year rather than a promise about this one.

Where can I find a Texas waterfowl report?

Texas Parks and Wildlife publishes the official Texas regulations and, during the season, survey counts and reports, so start there for anything legal. DuckCast adds a daily migration score for each of the 9 TX regions, built from live weather, the freeze across Oklahoma and the southern plains, crop progress and hunter reports, and each morning it reads NEXRAD radar to say whether birds actually moved over the region after dark. Hunter reports filed in the app are generalized to the region, never to a spot.