Duck hunting begins

Open season: duck hunting begins

While the 2026 duck hunting season has begun, the fight to end recreational native bird shooting in Australia continues.

It’s open season in Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia, with the 2026 duck season now underway.

Over the next three months, hunters are permitted to kill protected native duck species at wetlands across each state.

In South Australia, shooters can “bag” up to eight birds per day, compared to nine in Victoria and ten birds, per shooter, per day, in Tasmania.

An entirely preventable death sentence for hundreds of thousands of waterfowl, this duck hunting season comes at a time when waterbirds need government action more than ever.

Here’s why it’s time to ban recreational native bird hunting in Victoria – and beyond.

Ducks in danger

Waterbird populations are continuing to decline across eastern Australia. The Eastern Australian Waterbird Survey (EAWS) – one of the longest-running annual waterbird surveys in Australia – shows that our waterbird populations are in consistent long-term decline.

The study identified below average abundance of most permitted game birds, including more common species like Chestnut Teal, Australian Shelduck and Australian Wood Duck.

Despite this, an average of 334,200 ducks are shot and killed each hunting season in Victoria alone – and that’s just the ones that get reported.

The Victorian Government claims that duck season is “sustainable, safe and backed by science”. But in 2025, duck hunters “harvested” an estimated 487,800 game birds – a figure almost 50% higher than the long-term average.

Victoria is the only state where the recreational hunting of Pink-eared Ducks is permitted. According to Game Management Authority estimates, as many as 15,800 birds – approximately 37% of the entire Victorian population of Pink-eared Ducks – were killed during last year’s duck season alone.

The bigger picture

Wounded waterfowl

Duck hunting uses shotguns, which scatter a spray of pellets at a target instead of firing a single bullet.

While duck hunters are required to recover birds after they are shot, many birds struck by pellets aren’t retrieved. Left wounded, the majority of waterfowl will die, while birds living with pellets embedded in their bodies endure unnecessary pain and suffering.

In Australia, historic wounding rates vary from 6–40%, meaning tens of thousands of birds can be wounded in a single season. It’s a serious animal welfare issue, but wounding losses – where birds are struck but not retrieved – are not included in total mortality estimates. With thousands of (largely unsupervised) wetland sites where duck hunting is permitted across the state, the real number is likely to be much, much higher.

Meanwhile, other non-target and protected species are often collateral damage. Freckled Ducks and Australasian Shovelers – both listed as threatened species in Victoria – often forage and fly in mixed flocks with other game species, meaning they’re at a higher risk of being misidentified and mistakenly shot. In the first days of the 2025 season, volunteers recovered 12 Endangered Freckled Ducks from just two Victorian wetlands.

And ducks – which are culturally significant and totemic species for First Nations People – aren’t the only birds suffering.

Impacts on wetland birds

Wetland bird species are especially sensitive to disturbance, and open season means more noise and human activity in their wetland homes. Recreational hunting is a high impact disturbance activity and can cause wetland birds to alter their behaviours, movements and habitat use, while displacing them from their preferred feeding, breeding and roosting habitat.

The increased presence of hunters – especially in areas not normally visited by people – can cause birds to abandon their nests or young, while impacting the breeding success of colony-nesting species like egrets, cormorants and spoonbills.

Meanwhile, Brolgas – an Endangered species in Victoria – flock to traditional wetland sites during duck shooting season. Flocking is an important pre-breeding behaviour, and any disturbance during this sensitive period can impact their breeding success.

In autumn, migratory shorebirds – among the world’s most threatened groups of birds – depart Victorian wetlands and travel more than 10,000 km to their breeding grounds in the high Arctic. In preparation for their epic journeys, migratory shorebirds must dramatically increase their body weight to give them the best chance of safely reaching their destination. Disturbance from shooting activity forces migratory shorebirds to flee their wetland refuges when they should be refuelling, spending longer periods in flight and depleting the critical energy reserves they need to survive.

…and wetlands

Wetlands are valuable community assets. As popular tourist destinations, they support a range of leisure and recreational activities year-round – including birdwatching, walking and camping. Bird and nature tourism can generate significant revenue and help boost local economies.

Meanwhile, mounting scientific evidence continues to reveal the many mental health and wellbeing benefits of spending time in nature and watching birds. But during open season, many public wetlands, lakes and ecological reserves are closed to anyone without a hunting licence. In Victoria, it’s a criminal offence to be within 25 metres of the water’s edge within specified hunting areas and hours.

And once the shotguns fall silent, it’s locals and volunteers who are left to pick up the pieces.

According to Game Management Authority (GMA) estimates, Victorian duck hunters leave behind millions of pieces of discarded plastic shotgun cartridge components every year – polluting fragile wetlands and waterways and harming wildlife.

Preparing for H5 bird flu

Right now, Australia is bracing for the arrival of H5 bird flu – a devastating virus which waterbirds are particularly vulnerable to.

There is still no cure for H5 bird flu, and in looking overseas, we know that little can be done to prevent outbreaks or reduce the number of deaths in susceptible species. That’s why it’s so important that we build healthy, resilient waterbird populations by reducing the threats they face.

Waterbird populations are continuing to decline in the face of compounding threats – including the growing impacts of climate change, habitat destruction and predation. These threats are cumulative – a slow death by a thousand cuts. And recreational duck hunting adds unnecessary pressure to these already struggling bird populations.

Meanwhile, the stress of consecutive months of shooting takes a toll. Stressed birds have a weaker immune response, making them more susceptible to disease. They also shed more virus, increasing the likelihood of spread.

As we remain on high alert for the arrival of H5 bird flu on our shores, protecting our threatened and declining waterbirds has never been more important.

Join the fight

In 2023, the Victorian Government’s own parliamentary inquiry recommended an end to recreational native duck and quail hunting, following a record number of submissions from Victorians.

The Select Committee on Victoria’s Recreational Native Bird Hunting Arrangements found that the practice should be banned on all private and public land in the state, citing environmental and animal welfare concerns – but the Victorian Government ignored these recommendations.

Years later, the slaughter continues – with the 2026 season set to be one of the longest and deadliest in recent years.

While this decision is another devastating blow to threatened and declining native waterbirds, BirdLife Australia continues to campaign for the end of duck shooting in Victoria – while advocating for the practice to be banned nationwide. Duck hunting has long been banned in Western Australia, the ACT, New South Wales and Queensland.

Join our campaign calling for an end to recreational duck shooting in Victoria and South Australia – and help make sure the 2026 open season will be the last.