California is home to 10 of North America’s 27 huntable upland bird species—making it one of the most diverse upland bird habitats in the country.
Doves
California's dove season opens September 1st — the unofficial start of the upland year. Mourning doves and white-winged doves will test your wing-shooting skills.
Quail
California has three quail species worth chasing — California quail in the foothill chaparral, Gambel's quail in the desert southeast, and mountain quail in the steep timber country.
Pheasant
Ring-necked pheasants aren't native to California, but they've made the Sacramento Valley floor their own — and a rooster flushing from tule marsh is tough to forget.
Sooty & Ruffed Grouse
Sooty and ruffed grouse are California's most overlooked upland birds — forest species that require elevation, dense timber, and a willingness to hunt country most bird hunters never see.
Chukar
Chukar live where most hunters won't go — steep, rocky, and relentlessly vertical country in the eastern Sierra and Great Basin ranges. They'll humble you, but they're worth it.
Band Tailed Pigeon
Band-tailed pigeons are a coastal and mountain species that few California hunters pursue — and that's exactly why the ones who do have the oak ridges largely to themselves.
Ptarmigan
White-tailed ptarmigan occupy some of the most remote alpine terrain in the Sierra Nevada — a bird so rarely pursued in California that finding one is an achievement before the shotgun ever comes up.
Snipe
Wilson's snipe are real, they're huntable, and don't let the name fool you — their cork-screw flush will expose a wing-shooter faster than almost anything else in the field.