Doves in California
Mourning dove (Zenaida macroura) and white-winged dove (Zenaida asiatica): the September opener most California hunters treat as the start of the upland year, and a second split that runs into late December.
Sept. 1 is the first morning of the upland year for most California hunters, and it is a dove morning: a low stool on a field edge, a cooler in the truck, and a small gray bird that makes good shooters look ordinary. Matt grew up on Central Valley dove fields; Peter grew up hunting dove in the Nevada valleys and now hunts them behind Alan, his English cocker. This page is the short version — the season, the birds, where they live, and everything we have written about them.
A mourning dove on a lichen-covered limb in Sacramento. Photo: ADJ82 / CC BY 3.0 — source
2026–27 Season at a Glance
Dates: Sept. 1–15 and Nov. 14–Dec. 28, statewide.
Daily bag: 15 mourning and white-winged doves combined, no more than 10 of them white-winged. Possession is triple the daily bag.
Other doves: Eurasian collared-dove is open all year with no limit. Spotted dove and ringed turtle-dove carry no bag limit.
Shooting hours: one-half hour before sunrise to sunset.
Paperwork: a California hunting license, the upland game bird validation (not required on a junior license), and the free HIP validation.
Shot: nonlead only. California requires it for any wildlife taken with a firearm, anywhere in the state.
Checked against CDFW's 2026–27 seasons and limits on Oct. 7, 2026. Dates change every year; the CDFW upland game bird page and the regulations booklet linked from it are the authority.
Know the Birds
Mourning dove. Slim and gray-brown, with a small head, black spots on the wing, and a long pointed tail edged in white that fans when the bird lands. The wings whistle on takeoff. It nests in every county in California, raises several broods a year, and is the bird in nearly every bag on opening morning.
White-winged dove. Stockier, with a squared tail and a bold white bar along the wing that shows as a white stripe even at rest. It is a summer bird of the southeastern deserts — the Imperial and Coachella valleys and the Colorado River country — which is why the 10-bird white-wing cap matters most down there.
Eurasian collared-dove. Bigger and paler than a mourning dove, with a black half-collar on the back of the neck and a square-ended tail. It never counts toward your 15 — but a mourning dove you mistook for one always does, so call the bird before the shot. CDFW's dove identification sheet is worth five minutes in August.
The two splits hunt differently. September birds are mostly local, and they stack up on whatever grain field was just cut and the nearest open water. November birds come down from the north behind weather fronts and concentrate on water and the few fields still holding seed.
Where They Live in California
Doves are in every county, but the hunting concentrates where seed, water, and roost trees sit close together. Hunters took an estimated 826,269 doves in 2023–24, according to CDFW's harvest survey — nearly four times the California quail harvest.
The Sacramento Valley. Sunflower, safflower, and cut grain on the valley floor, and several CDFW wildlife areas plant fields for doves on public ground.
The San Joaquin Valley. Big harvest numbers in the southern half, mostly on private farm ground, where an introduction to a landowner before September is worth more than any map.
The Imperial Valley and the Salton Sink. The white-winged dove's California stronghold and a second-split destination; Imperial County led the state's dove harvest in 2023–24 at 128,584 birds. CDFW publishes an Imperial Valley dove-field map each season.
The Central Coast and the foothill edges. Inland valleys from Monterey to Santa Barbara, and brushy farm edges almost anywhere. Less concentrated, still real.
Check the land before you load the truck. CDFW wildlife areas, national wildlife refuges, BLM ground, and state parks all run on different rules, and some are closed to hunting outright — our public land designations guide sorts them out. To see where doves were actually taken, pick "Dove" on our county Harvest Map.
How They're Hunted
Dove hunting is pass shooting from a fixed spot, which makes it the most social day on the upland calendar and the best wingshooting school in the state. Five things we come back to every season:
Scout the field, not the country. A slow drive past cut fields two days before you hunt, watching wires and field edges, tells you more than any map. The drive-by method has the routine.
Set up where the birds come in. Usually the corner nearest water or roost trees, back from the edge, in shade if there is any.
Water matters more as the day heats up. On a hot opener, birds come to the nearest open water mid-morning and again late in the day.
Pattern your nonlead loads before the opener. Steel 7½s and 8s are the common dove loads; our 25-yard testcovers choke and shot pairing.
Plan the dog around the heat. A retriever saves winged birds, and September is the hottest work a California dog does all year. Heat, shade, and water is the plan.
None of it survives a farmer's disc. A field that held birds on Friday can be empty by Sunday, and nothing on this page replaces the drive. Three birds by noon on a crowded opener is a good morning; the second split, when the fields are quiet and the birds are new arrivals, is the part of dove season we'd talk a friend into.
Start Here
The California Dove Hunting Guide. Our cornerstone: the birds, the four regions, the season's rhythm, and the five rules we shoot by.
California Dove Regulations 2026–27. HIP, the validation, and the nonlead rule, explained.
Everything We've Written on Doves
Planning and places
Planning a Sacramento Valley Dove Opener: What NorCal Hunters Should Do Now
Sacramento Valley Dove Field Prep: A Pre-Opener May Drive-By Method
Scouting Summer Dove Fields in California: Reading Sunflower, Safflower, and Grain Edges
What Changes in a Sacramento Valley Dove Field After Opening Weekend
Shells and shooting
Dogs in September heat
Heat, Shade, and Water Strategy: Don't Cook Your Dog on Sept. 1
Heat Safety for Bird Dogs: California Off-Season Conditioning
From the field and the kitchen
The Four Weeks That Decide October: Quail Prep While Dove Is Still Open
From a Dove Field Back to Quail: Peter Burnham on The Upland Social
The bigger picture
Other California Upland Birds
Quail · Pheasant · Chukar · Sooty and ruffed grouse · Band-tailed pigeon · White-tailed ptarmigan · Wilson's snipe · All birds
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Photo credit: mourning dove, Sacramento — ADJ82 / CC BY 3.0 — source