Licensing & regulations

Required of any person 16 years of age or older to hunt or take any migratory waterfowl in the United States. An electronic Federal Duck Stamp (E-Stamp) allows immediate use and is valid through June 30 of the following year.

Exemptions: None. Directly confirmed: "Regardless of state stamp status, a Federal Duck Stamp is separately required for anyone 16 or older hunting migratory waterfowl, with no exemptions" — including landowners and hunters otherwise exempt from a state hunting license.

Required, in addition to the federal stamp, for anyone hunting ducks, geese, brant, or swans in Virginia. Costs $10.00 (resident or non-resident) as of this check. Purchasable from license agents, clerks who sell Virginia hunting licenses, or dwr.virginia.gov/licenses/.

Exemptions: Landowners hunting waterfowl on their own property, and anyone otherwise exempt from Virginia hunting-license requirements, are exempt from this specific state stamp (not the separate federal stamp, which has no such exemption). HIP registration does NOT substitute for this stamp — DWR's own page poses and directly answers this exact question: 'Do I still have to be registered with the Virginia Harvest Information Program (HIP) if I buy the Virginia Migratory Waterfowl Conservation Stamp?' — 'Yes.' The two are separate, both-required obligations; see this project's own hip-registration entry.

All hunters — whether otherwise licensed or license-exempt — who plan to hunt migratory game birds (dove, waterfowl, rail, woodcock, snipe, coots, gallinules, or moorhens) must be registered with Virginia's Harvest Information Program. A new HIP registration is required on July 1 of each year — last year's registration does not carry over.

A base Virginia hunting license is required to hunt waterfowl (or to apply for a Tundra Swan permit), subject to the usual age/residency/exemption structure DWR's general licensing pages describe.

Exemptions: Directly confirmed against Virginia Code § 29.1-301's own statutory text: landowners (and their spouse/children/grandchildren/parents) hunting their own land; tenants/renters/lessees with the landowner's written permission, hunting the land they reside on; stockholders owning 50%+ of a domestic corporation's land (and their spouse/minor children/grandchildren), on that corporation's land; residents under 12 with direct adult-license-holder supervision; residents 65 or older, hunting on private property in their county/city of residence; members of Virginia-recognized tribes or Indians habitually residing on a reservation, with tribal identification; active-duty U.S. armed forces members; any person aiding a disabled person who holds a valid license. Where exempt, the exemption covers the base license, bear/deer-turkey/archery/muzzleloading licenses, and the Virginia Migratory Waterfowl Conservation Stamp specifically — it does NOT exempt anyone from the separate Federal Duck Stamp (see that requirement's own "no exemptions" note), and all season dates, bag limits, and harvest-reporting requirements still apply regardless of license exemption.

Directly confirmed via DWR's own hunter-education-requirements page: "You are required to complete hunter education before buying a hunting license if: you are 12–15 years of age, or you have not previously purchased a regular hunting license." This is age/purchase-history based, not a fixed birth-year cutoff — an earlier search-engine summary found during this project's research claimed a "born after January 1, 1975" cutoff, but that claim is not supported by DWR's own current page and is not repeated here (see verificationNotes). Separate from, and not satisfied by, a boating-safety course (see the boat/motor requirement below — the two are different programs).

Exemptions: Directly confirmed via DWR's own page: does not apply to "persons while on horseback hunting foxes with hounds but without firearms," or to hunters under 12 (who must be immediately supervised by a licensed adult instead). An apprentice hunting license can also be purchased in place of completing hunter education. Virginia accepts another state's or country's hunting license or official hunter-education credential as satisfying this requirement.

Non-toxic shot is required for all waterfowl hunting in Virginia, as well as for rail and snipe hunting. Lead shot is not a lawful choice for any of these species.

No person may hunt migratory waterfowl in Virginia's public waters within 500 yards of another hunter's legally licensed erected stationary blind or licensed offshore blind stake site, without that licensee's written consent immediately available on request by a law-enforcement officer — except when in active pursuit of a visible, legally shot, crippled bird. Non-riparian stationary blinds may not be erected or licensed on the shores or public waters adjacent to any DWR wildlife management area or wildlife conservation site.

Virginia law requires anyone operating a motorboat with a 10-horsepower-or-greater engine, or a personal watercraft, to have completed a NASBLA-approved boating safety course and to carry proof of completion while boating. This is a separate requirement from hunter education, not satisfied by it — many waterfowl hunters need both.

To use a Virginia Wildlife Management Area (including for waterfowl hunting), a visitor needs "a valid Virginia hunting or trapping license, fishing license, current certificate of Virginia boat registration, access permit, or current 'Restore the Wild' membership" — confirmed identically worded on Princess Anne, Ragged Island, and Hog Island WMA's own pages.

Tundra swan hunting in Virginia is by permit only. DWR issues a maximum number of permits (475 for the season checked during this build) through a drawing; a Virginia hunting license is required to apply. Permits are nontransferable, valid only for the person to whom issued, must be in the permit holder's immediate possession while swan hunting, and authorize taking one tundra swan. A post-hunt questionnaire must be returned by February 15 or the hunter becomes ineligible for future drawings.

Several national wildlife refuges in this project's dataset (Plum Tree Island NWR, Eastern Shore of Virginia NWR) require a hunter to obtain and carry a refuge-specific hunt permit or a signed copy of that refuge's own annual hunt brochure, in addition to standard state and federal waterfowl-hunting requirements — this is a refuge-by-refuge program, not a single statewide permit, and its exact form (free permit, signed brochure, online portal registration) varies by refuge and by season.

Exemptions: None known — treat as required at any refuge whose own current hunt brochure/permit page states it, and confirm directly with that refuge before hunting rather than assuming a permit type carries over from another refuge.

Directly confirmed via DWR's own general hunting-regulations page: "Hunting is allowed on Sundays except under the following circumstances: within 200 yards of a house of worship or any accessory structure thereof [and] to hunt or kill any deer or bear with a gun, firearm, or other weapon with the aid or assistance of dogs." Sunday waterfowl hunting is therefore generally permitted statewide — the two stated restrictions are a fixed distance from a house of worship (applies to all hunting, waterfowl included) and a dogs-for-deer-or-bear restriction that does not apply to waterfowl hunting at all.

Directly confirmed via DWR's own migratory-game-bird regulations page: "No person shall kill or cripple any migratory game bird without making a reasonable effort to retrieve the bird, and retain it in his actual custody, at the place where taken..." — retained custody extends through transporting the bird to the hunter's vehicle, residence, a preservation facility, the post office, or a common carrier.

Directly confirmed via DWR's own migratory-game-bird regulations page: ducks and geese may be hunted "one-half hour before sunrise to sunset" during the regular season — ending at sunset itself, not a half-hour after, which is a real and easy-to-misremember difference from Virginia's general (non-migratory) hunting-hours rule. Two specific exceptions extend shooting an extra half-hour past sunset: the September Canada goose season (east of I-95, September 1-18) and the federal Light Goose Conservation Order, both "one-half hour before sunrise to one-half hour after sunset."

Exemptions: None for the regular duck/goose season's own end-at-sunset rule — the September Canada goose season and the Light Goose Conservation Order are separate programs with their own extended hours stated above, not exemptions from this rule.

Apply through DWR's drawing system; a valid Virginia hunting license is required to apply. If drawn, the permit is nontransferable and authorizes one tundra swan for the permit holder only, who must carry it while hunting. A post-hunt questionnaire must be returned by February 15 or the hunter becomes ineligible for future drawings.

Window: Deadline confirmed as September 25 for the season checked during this build (2026-2027) — reconfirm the exact date each year.

Maximum 475 permits issued for the season checked during this build.

General waterfowl hunts on the Beasley/Whitehurst impoundments and the Trojan/Pocahontas float-blind stakes are managed by DWR's agency quota-hunt system outside the September goose/teal season, when those same areas instead run first-come-first-served on specific days.

DWR-cited quota numbers for this area (Quotas #112, #107, #102) — apply through DWR's own quota-hunt system for the current season's exact application process and dates.

Applications for both deer and waterfowl hunts at Hog Island are made through DWR's agency quota-hunt system. Department-constructed blinds accommodate three hunters each.