Colorado · Pheasant · 2026–27 Edition
Colorado Pheasant Season 2026–27: Dates, Zones & Bag Limits
01 — Seasons
| Season | Zone | Dates |
|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | East of I-25 | Nov 14 – Jan 31 |
| Season 2 | West of I-25 | Nov 14 – Jan 3 |
02 — Bag limits
| Daily — both seasons | 3 cocks (roosters) |
|---|---|
| Possession — both seasons | 9 cocks |
03 — Shooting hours
Legal light on opening day (November 14, 2026) 06:17 — 16:48
Rule: One-half hour before sunrise to sunset — Colorado's standard small-game shooting-hours rule, stated for pheasant along with all other small game. Sunrise/sunset shift daily — the times above are computed for opening day; use your local Colorado sun times for any other date.
04 — License
Pheasant hunters in Colorado need a Colorado hunting license — a small game license plus a Habitat Stamp (2026: $12.76 resident / $104.86 nonresident, required of hunters ages 18–64); hunters under 18 use a discounted Youth Small Game & Furbearer license ($2.53) and must be accompanied by, and stay within sight/hearing of, a licensed adult mentor
05 — FAQ
When does pheasant season open in Colorado?
The earliest 2026–27 opener is November 14, 2026. See the table above for each segment and zone.
When does pheasant season end in Colorado?
The latest 2026–27 closing date is January 31, 2027. Individual segments and zones can close earlier — see the table above.
Can I shoot hen pheasants in Colorado?
See the bag limit table above — most states restrict the daily bag to roosters only, but rules vary and this is worth double-checking against Colorado Parks and Wildlife before you hunt.
How many pheasants can you shoot in Colorado per day?
2026–27 bag limits: Daily — both seasons — 3 cocks (roosters). Possession — both seasons — 9 cocks. Limits are set per zone and per permit — check the agency's own regulations before you hunt.
What time can you start shooting pheasant in Colorado?
On opening day (November 14, 2026) legal light runs 06:17 to 16:48. The rule is: One-half hour before sunrise to sunset — Colorado's standard small-game shooting-hours rule, stated for pheasant along with all other small game. Sunrise and sunset shift daily, so work the offset against your local Colorado sun times for any other date.
Verified · Colorado Parks and Wildlife · Last verified 2026-08-15
Publisher's note. CPW's own 'Small Game' web page (cpw.state.co.us/activities/hunting/small-game) only gives the opener as a countdown ('November 14, 12:01am MST — Pheasant 1st and 2nd Seasons Open') and points to the full '2026 Colorado Small Game and Waterfowl Brochure' for the rest. That brochure is served through a Widen JS viewer that neither WebFetch nor a text-extraction proxy could read directly (empty/binary output); it was instead downloaded as a raw PDF via curl (32MB, confirmed genuine — 'PDF document, version 1.5, 25 pages', cover text '2026 Colorado Small Game & Waterfowl Hunting') and its text extracted locally with pdftotext, which is how the table below was actually read (page 10 of the brochure): 'Season 1: Nov. 14–Jan. 31, 2027 / Area: East of I-25' and 'Season 2: Nov. 14–Jan. 3, 2027 / Area: West of I-25,' both with 'Daily bag limit: 3 cocks / Possession limit: 9 cocks.' Colorado does not publish a separate youth-only pheasant season — youth hunters use the same Season 1/2 dates under a discounted Youth Small Game & Furbearer license and must be accompanied by a licensed adult mentor. Shooting hours ('Legal times to hunt small game and/or waterfowl are one-half hour before sunrise to sunset') and license fees are from the same PDF, pages 4 and 1-2 respectively. Note on geography: this brochure's legal zones (east vs. west of I-25) already track where the birds actually are — CPW's own separate 'Eastern Plains Pheasant and Quail Forecast' page describes the real population as concentrated on the far-eastern plains (Yuma, Phillips, Sedgwick, Logan, Washington, Morgan and SE Weld counties in the northeast; Kit Carson/Cheyenne/Kiowa in east-central; Baca/Prowers in the far southeast) — Season 2's 'west of I-25' area is legally open but is not core pheasant range.