Colorado dark geese season 2026-27: dates, units and bag limits

Dark geese is open in Colorado from November 2, 2026 to February 14, 2027, east of the Continental Divide outside the North Park, South Park and San Luis Valley zones (the part east of I-25). This page has the 2026-27 dates, the daily bag and possession limits, the licences you need and the rules that apply, read from the Colorado Parks and Wildlife brochure.

2026-27 season dates and limits

Shooting hours: Half an hour before sunrise to sunset. Non-toxic shot is required.

Units we can plan for dark geese

The legal area is as the brochure words it in the table above. These are the units inside it that our maps cover: a unit missing from a list may still be open, so check the brochure.

Balance of Central Flyway, east of I-25: east of the Continental Divide outside the North Park, South Park and San Luis Valley zones (the part east of I-25)

45 units: 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 95, 96, 97, 98, 100, 101, 102, 103, 106, 107, 109, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 119, 120, 121, 122, 124, 125, 126, 127, 130, 132, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 147.

Licences and stamps

• Colorado small game licence
• Colorado Habitat Stamp
• Harvest Information Program (HIP) number for this season
• Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp (duck stamp)
• Colorado waterfowl stamp

Rules for dark geese

• Non-toxic shot no larger than size T. You may not carry lead shot while hunting ducks, geese or coots.
• Shotgun holding no more than three shells.
• At 16 and older you need the federal duck stamp and the Colorado waterfowl stamp as well as the licence and HIP.
• Keep the head or one fully feathered wing on each bird until you are home.
• In the northern Front Range area and in Bent, Crowley, Kiowa, Mesa, Otero and Prowers counties, no waterfowl hunting within 50 yards of the centre line of a public road or within 150 yards of a dwelling without the occupant's permission.
• No goose hunting in the Ovid-Julesburg corridor (Sedgwick County), around Jumbo (Julesburg) Reservoir, or below the high water line at Empire Reservoir. Fossil Creek Reservoir is closed as posted.

Do not mistake these for dark geese

• Sandhill crane (different season or permit): Long neck held straight out and long legs trailing behind, with a rolling bugle. It needs its own permit and is legal only 3 October to 29 November east of the Divide outside North Park and the San Luis Valley.
• Swans, pelicans and whooping crane (protected or closed: never shoot): Very large white birds. A goose has a short neck and no trailing legs. Never a target.
• Great blue heron and cormorants (protected or closed: never shoot): A heron flies with its neck folded and slow wingbeats. A cormorant is black with a long tail. Neither is a goose.

How to hunt dark geese

• Scout the evening before. Watch where the flocks leave the roost and which field they drop into, and be there before light.
• Geese land into the wind. Set the decoys with a landing gap downwind of the hide, and stay hidden and still.
• If you cannot get on the field, sit the flight line between roost and feed on legal ground.
• Agree shooting arcs before light. Nobody stands up early.

What a map cannot tell you

• Most goose hunting is on private fields by permission or lease. Crop fields are not offered.
• City ponds, parks and many reservoirs where geese roost are closed to hunting, and towns ban shooting. the planner does not know town limits.
• Walk-In Access parcels are not in the planner.
• Only the units wholly east of I-25 are mapped. Elsewhere only an owner's draft can be made.

Source

2026 Colorado Small Game & Waterfowl brochure (corrections 21 Aug 2026), pages 6 to 8 and 14; CPW regulations chapter W-5 (03/04/2026): https://cpw.widen.net/s/bklvf2bjmw/colorado-small-game--waterfowl-brochure. Read October 2, 2026. Rules change every year, and corrections are issued during the season: read the current brochure before you hunt.