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Green-winged Teal Harvest Study: What the Numbers Say

| by Topics: Hunting, Waterfowl Harvest

green-winged-teal-harvest-study

Do you love hunting Green-winged Teal in California? We’ve got some good news for you….

At WaterfowlChoke we love everything about hunting ducks, whether it’s making the perfect shot, learning to call effectively, or buying the best choke tube, we want to help people in every aspect of duck hunting – so we know as well as anyone how important harvesting Green-winged Teal is.

Harvesting a Green-winged Teal is the most iconic achievement in duck hunting, especially when it’s a memorable hunt or you get a banded bird. However, there are a few people who have made harvesting Green-winged Teal their specialty, and you’d be surprised just how many Green-winged Teal have been harvested in America since the turn of the millennium.

So, to look deeper into the Green-winged Teal harvest, we decided to do some research into just how many Green-winged Teal are harvested each year and what areas shoot the most – here’s what we found.

For this research, we looked at the adaptive harvest reports for each state in 2021 in the United States, to reveal which American states are best for harvesting Green-winged Teal.

Where are the Most Green-winged Teal Being Shot?

We discovered that hunters who hunt Green-winged Teal in California are the most likely to harvest the most amount of Green-winged Teal per hunt, followed by in Texas and Arkansas. Since 2021, those in California have harvested 294,864 Green-winged Teal, whilst in Texas and Arkansas, hunters have harvested 188,084 and 118,771, respectively.

The fifteen states that harvested the most Green-winged Teal, and the number each state has recorded for 2021, are as follows:

  1. California – 294,864
  2. Texas – 188,084
  3. Arkansas – 118,771
  4. Louisiana – 109,520
  5. Oregon – 46,222
  6. Washington – 46,208
  7. Minnesota – 42,498
  8. Utah – 41,944
  9. North Carolina – 41,734
  10. Oklahoma – 40,214
  11. North Dakota – 38,599
  12. Wisconsin – 38,563
  13. Missouri – 37,867
  14. Mississippi – 31,221
  15. Kansas – 29,698

(Sources: USFWS Harvest Survey, AGFC, TPWD)

The data showed that the Green-winged Teal hunters sticking to the marshes and lakes of California are most likely to harvest a Green-winged Teal. Shockingly, Arkansas Green-winged Teal hunters have fallen drastically on the harvest list and you have to wonder if they will even see a Green-winged Teal on the average duck hunt.

More Waterfowl Harvest Studies
Harvest studies are conducted by the USFWS each year in the U.S. to gauge the number of ducks and geese that are taken by hunters. This aids in setting bag limits and managing migratory bird populations from year to year. Below are the most common migratory species with available harvest data. Please click the links below to see how many birds were harvested and where.

The Most Common Shotgun Used for Harvesting Green-winged Teal

When looking at which shotgun people had used to harvest a Green-winged Teal, the 12-gauge was revealed as the most commonly used shotgun, with over 80% of hunters choosing it. A 20 gauge and a 10 gauge shotgun rounded off the top three, with 20 gauge being the second most popular.

The 28 gauge came in fourth place with 12% usage, while the 410 bore came fifth, with 5%.

We also delved into which month people had been harvesting the most Green-winged Teal, and discovered that November was the most common, with 43% of Green-winged Teal harvested. The months of December (33%) and January (24%) came in second and third. This is likely due to duck season timing by state and hunter participation levels peaking at certain months and the fact that teal move through most states earlier in the year.

states-that-shoot-the-most-green-winged-teal

Waterfowlchoke editors, after reviewing the data, said:

“As any duck hunter will know, harvesting Green-winged Teal is a lifetime achievement – unless you’re a well-known hunting guide, an amateur hunter with multiple limit hunts on Green-winged Teal is quite the accomplishment.

“It’s interesting to see those in California harvesting so many Green-winged Teal – especially when the mallard harvest and other species is lower than several other States – you have to wonder what tactics they’re using out there on the Pacific Flyway! We’re planning to make this research a recurring thing, so that we can track how Green-winged Teal harvests in the US are changing – who knows, maybe Texas will surpass California this time next year.”

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