Colorado diving ducks season 2026-27: dates, units and bag limits

Diving ducks is open in Colorado from October 17, 2026 to January 31, 2027, in the areas listed below. 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 diving ducks

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.

Central Flyway Northeast zone, first split: east of I-25 and north of I-70

10 units: 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 95, 96, 97, 98.

Inside the 6: at most 2 canvasback, 2 redhead and 1 scaup. Mergansers count in the 6.

Central Flyway Northeast zone, second split: east of I-25 and north of I-70

10 units: 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 95, 96, 97, 98.

Inside the 6: at most 2 canvasback, 2 redhead and 1 scaup. Mergansers count in the 6.

Central Flyway Southeast zone: east of I-25 and south of I-70 (all of El Paso, Pueblo, Huerfano and Las Animas counties are also in this zone, and are not mapped)

22 units: 113, 119, 120, 121, 122, 124, 125, 126, 127, 130, 132, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 147.

Inside the 6: at most 2 canvasback, 2 redhead and 1 scaup. Mergansers count in the 6.

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 diving ducks

• 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, so the species can be told.
• 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 baiting. Make every effort to retrieve a downed bird, and keep it.

Do not mistake these for diving ducks

• Grebes, loons and cormorants (protected or closed: never shoot): They sit low, dive, and run across the water to take off like divers do. A grebe has a thin pointed bill and almost no tail. None may be shot.
• Swans and pelicans (protected or closed: never shoot): Very large white birds on big water. Never a target.
• Scaup (lower limit): White band along the trailing edge of the wing. Limit 1 in the Central Flyway zones, and closed late in the Pacific zones. A ring-necked duck has an all-dark wing and counts in the general limit.
• Canvasback and redhead (lower limit): Limit 2 each. A canvasback has a long sloping black bill and a white back; a redhead has a round head and a grey back.

How to hunt diving ducks

• Divers fly low lines along the shore and across points and narrows. Set up on a point with the wind at your back.
• Big water in winter is dangerous. Cold water kills quickly, and many properties ban or limit boats.
• Have a way to retrieve before you shoot. A diver that falls wounded dives and swims.

What a map cannot tell you

• Many reservoirs are closed to hunting, closed near the dam, or hunted only by reservation. the planner does not know which. Read the property's rules.
• The planner has no lake depth and cannot tell a point from a cove.
• Only the two eastern plains zones are mapped to units. 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 12 to 13; 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.