Outdoors
The BDN outdoors section brings readers into the woods, waters and wild places of Maine. It features stories on hunting, fishing, wildlife, conservation and recreation, told by people who live these experiences. This section emphasizes hands-on knowledge, field reports, issues, trends and the traditions that define life outside in Maine. Read more Outdoors stories here.
I have never hunted mourning doves, or any kind of dove for that matter, but I would like to. Every winter, several doves sun themselves atop the woodpile under our south-facing front porch. When I go down to replenish the living room wood supply, they blast off like a rocket.
I’ve often wondered if my wingshooting abilities are still good enough to match their speed. I would like to find out, but I can’t because Maine is one of just nine states that ban dove hunting or do not list doves as a legal migratory game bird. Of the six New England states, Rhode Island is the only one with a dove hunting season in its 2026-27 Hunting and Trapping Regulation Guide.
A friend of mine in Texas, however, hunts doves. While hunting grouse with him in Piscataquis County a few weeks ago, he told me dove hunting is highly anticipated each year in his home state. It’s a really big thing, and doves are the most popular game bird in Texas.
He didn’t know how many doves are hunted annually but guessed the number was in the tens of thousands, given the split season and generous bag and possession limits.
Being the curious type, I researched the numbers a few days after his departure from the Portland airport. According to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, some 300,000 to 350,000 resident and nonresident hunters pursue doves in Texas each year.
The department doesn’t publish the number of mourning doves killed each fall, but Texas has the largest dove population in the country and leads the nation in dove hunting. The state accounts for more than 30% of the national total, according to the report. You do the math. The numbers run into the millions.
On our way home from the grouse trip, my Texas friend was surprised when I mentioned that we don’t hunt doves in Maine. He wondered why, and I thought it was a good question.
Mourning doves are migratory birds protected under the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Although the law protects them nationally, the federal framework allows states to establish hunting seasons and set bag and possession limits.
Forty-one states have dove hunting seasons, but Maine is not one of them.
In its official migratory game bird regulations, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife lists three bird families: Anatidae, which includes ducks and geese; Rallidae, which includes rails and gallinules; and Scolopacidae, which includes woodcock and snipe.
Mourning doves belong to a different family, Columbidae, which is not included in the list of huntable migratory birds. Because Maine has not established an authorized hunting season for them, mourning doves cannot legally be hunted or possessed as game.
That explains the legal reason we can’t hunt mourning doves here. But why hasn’t Maine established a season when federal guidelines allow it?
While researching this column, I couldn’t find official figures or estimates of Maine’s mourning dove population, or determine whether recent studies or surveys had been conducted. I found only indications that doves have been here for a while and that their numbers and range may be increasing. Whether that’s true, I have no idea.
I can’t recall seeing a dove as a kid, but I see them now.
Perhaps dove numbers are not large enough to support a hunting season, and the MDIFW is right on the money not to include the family Columbidae on its list of huntable migratory birds.
But I think there are other factors at play that help answer the question: Will we ever hunt doves in Maine?
My thinking is that Mainers generally consider mourning doves gentle songbirds, and hunting them is not high on anyone’s priority list. Like Sunday hunting, bear baiting and some other topics, dove hunting would no doubt prove controversial and spark a firestorm of protests from anti-hunting groups and birdwatchers.
Who needs the hoopla, especially when Maine hunters can pursue grouse, woodcock and a long list of other migratory game birds?
So the answer is no. I don’t believe we’ll ever hunt mourning doves here in Maine, or at least not anytime soon.
But that’s OK. I’ve long been a grouse-loving fan, and still am. I can always shoot down to Rhode Island or take my friend up on his open invitation to give it a try in Texas.
It’s a long way to go, but I would really like to find out if my wingshooting is still up to the challenge.