Inside the 2026-27 Upland and Quail Report: Scarce Wild Birds, 182 Operators and the Booking Gap
Upland and Quail in the Southeast, 2026-27 Edition, is Pine & Marsh's fourth industry report. It looks at the hunters behind quail and upland birds, what the bobwhite data show, where the region's plantations and preserves are, and how those businesses present themselves online. It combines the 2022 National Survey, USFWS license data, the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the State of the Bobwhite 2023 report with a Pine & Marsh audit of hunting businesses.
It is for quail plantation owners, shooting preserve operators, upland guides and the lodges that sell bird hunts. This post walks through the report one chapter at a time, in the report's order. For the marketing playbook, see Marketing a Quail Hunting Plantation in the Southeast.
The Industry in Nine Numbers
The opening page frames the tension. Wild bobwhite are scarce across much of the Southeast, but quail and upland hunting is still sold, on managed land and on licensed preserves, to a hunter who looks for it online.
On the resource side, Georgia's bobwhite population index is down more than 75% since 1966 and Tennessee's Breeding Bird Survey index is down more than 90% since the 1960s. Georgia's estimated quail harvest fell 26% from 2015 to 2022, from 504,683 to 373,193 birds. On the demand side, the 2022 National Survey counted 5.3M small game hunters in the U.S., 37% of 14.4 million hunters, which is an upper bound for quail and upland birds.
The audit: 182 audited upland operators, 37% of the 493 audited hunting operators and the largest species group in the audit, with 163 sites read. 10% show an online booking engine on the homepage, against 8% of hunting operators and 27.0% in the Southeast benchmark, and 26% have FAQ content, against 36.9% in the benchmark.
Demand: Who Hunts Upland Birds
There is no federal count of upland hunters. Waterfowl has the Harvest Information Program, and quail and upland birds have nothing comparable. The best national measure is the 2022 National Survey, which counted 5,300,000 small game hunters (rounded), 37% of 14,374,589 hunters. Small game includes species other than quail and upland birds, such as rabbit and squirrel, and the Survey does not separate wild-bird hunting from hunting on preserves.
The 11 states had 4,714,399 paid hunting license holders in 2024, 29.9% of the U.S. total, up 1.1% against 2020, so the base is steady. The data do not break out a quail or upland endorsement, so no upland count is shown.
The Survey figures set the scale. It counted 241 million days of hunting nationally, about 6% of the population age 16 and older hunted, and the groups overlap: 11.5 million hunted big game, 5.3 million small game and 2.8 million migratory birds. License density varies sharply, from 10.7 holders per 100 residents in Arkansas and 10.1 in Tennessee to 1.1 in Florida, and the ratio includes nonresident buyers. Of BEA's $16.5 billion in 2024, hunting and trapping accounted for $8.3 billion and shooting, including archery, $8.1 billion.
Quail hunters were counted in only three states: Georgia (12,203 in 2022), North Carolina (about 5,700 in 2021-22) and Tennessee (about 7,000 in a recent survey). Set against paid hunting license holders, quail hunters are a small slice, roughly one in 67 to 105 license holders, which makes quail a niche within hunting. The years and methods differ, so the report calls these an order of magnitude. BEA value added from hunting, shooting and trapping reached $16.5 billion in 2024, up 95% from $8.5 billion in 2019, and that covers all hunting and shooting, not upland alone.
The caution that closes the chapter matters for planning: none of these figures says how many hunts are bought from a plantation, guide or preserve. They describe the pool an operator draws from, not the size of the guided or preserve market.
The Resource: Bobwhite Quail and the Birds in the Field
The most recent range-wide report the study found is the State of the Bobwhite 2023. No 2024 to 2026 edition was located, and there is no federal harvest survey for quail comparable to the duck survey. The state data are patchy and use different methods and periods.
Where a long-run index exists, it shows a steep decline. Georgia's index is down more than 75% since 1966, Tennessee's more than 90% since the 1960s, and Kentucky's mail carrier survey is down 67% from 1960 to 2023. South Carolina's 2023 whistling cock index sits 67.2% below its 1979 to 2023 average. Louisiana's whistle counts are described as near the lowest since the survey began in 1983.
Georgia is the one state with two comparable years of harvest and hunter estimates. Its estimated quail hunters fell from 15,060 in 2015 to 12,203 in 2022, down 19%. The 2022 harvest figure counts wild and pen-reared birds together, so it does not measure wild birds alone. Effort measures are modest: 0.14 birds per hour in Kentucky in 2022-23, 0.15 coveys per hour in South Carolina and 0.42 coveys per hour among Virginia cooperators.
Georgia's estimated quail harvest fell from 504,683 birds in 2015 to 373,193 in 2022, down 26%, and both numbers come from telephone surveys. The label on the 2015 estimate does not say whether it includes pen-reared birds, so the comparison is indicative. North Carolina's 2021-22 estimate was about 5,700 hunters taking about 37,000 quail. Mississippi's 2023 wildlife management area abundance index was down 5% on 2022, a small move. Alabama and Florida, and Arkansas outside managed lands, have no quail measure in the data collected, which is itself a finding about how thin the public record is.
Managed land is the bright spot. The source report names managed lands, including Arkansas wildlife management areas and Tennessee focus areas, as places where bobwhite are doing better, and Arkansas recorded 2.42 chicks per observer on managed lands.
The report cannot size pen-raised or preserve hunting, since it holds no data on pheasant, chukar or the number of preserves. Its general point is that licensed shooting preserves use released birds and do not rest on a wild population, while plantation hunts depend on habitat work and the birds that land supports. An operator who says plainly whether the hunt is wild birds, released birds or a mix is making a promise that is easier to keep.
On rules, preserve license terms differ by state, so check with your state agency. Wild-bird hunting on public land, including wildlife management areas, national wildlife refuges and national forests, follows each managing agency's rules, and commercial guiding there generally requires a permit or special-use authorization. Never advertise a public-land hunt without the permit for that unit, and confirm with the managing agency.
Where It Happens
Upland is the largest species group in the hunting audit: 182 operators, 37% of the 493. Georgia alone has 47 (26%), and Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina together hold 94 (52%). The five largest states, adding North Carolina and Tennessee, hold 127 (70%). The upland tag is a single category: the records do not split it by bird or by wild against pen-raised hunting.
The state table lines up the audit counts with license data. After Georgia's 47, Alabama has 25 audited upland operators (38% of its audited hunting operators), South Carolina 22 (55%), North Carolina 21 (34%), Tennessee 12 (27%), Mississippi 11 (32%), Virginia 11 (44%), Florida 10 (30%), Louisiana 9 (20%), Arkansas 8 (22%) and Kentucky 6 (16%). Georgia's 47 sit beside 815,738 paid hunting license holders, or 7.3 per 100 residents. The report cautions that a small count does not mean a state has few upland hunts, and that the license data and the audit counts do not rank the states in the same order.
As a share of each state's own audited hunting operators, upland is largest in Georgia (68%), South Carolina (55%) and Virginia (44%) and smallest in Kentucky (16%). The states with bobwhite indicators and the states with the most audited upland operators overlap, but the data do not show whether those operators sell wild-bird hunts, released-bird hunts or both. Seven states have fewer than 15 audited upland operators each (67 combined), so the report pools them.
The Business Landscape
95% of upland operators have their own website, and 163 of 182 sites were read. Mean digital health is 5.29 out of 10, with 36% scoring 4 or below and 15% scoring 8 or above, against 11% for all audited hunting operators. That is close to the 5.23 for all audited hunting operators and the 5.09 of the 1,546-operator Southeast benchmark. Five of the other seven species tags score higher than upland, led by sporting clays and lodges.
Of the 182 operators, 108 came from the new October 2026 audit and 74 from the Southeast audit. The mean digital health of 5.29 puts upland sixth of the eight species tags, behind sporting clays (5.87), lodges (5.82), wild hog (5.56), waterfowl (5.32) and turkey (5.30), and ahead of whitetail and dove (5.11). The spread among the eight is small.
Upland is often one product among several. Of the 182 operators, 79 carry no other species tag. 56 are also tagged as lodges, 41 as whitetail, 38 as sporting clays, 29 as turkey and 29 as waterfowl. A plantation or preserve that sells a lodge stay, a hunt and a shoot is selling a package, and the site has to show the package.
Four states have enough operators to show: Georgia (5.28), Alabama (5.44), South Carolina (5.27) and North Carolina (5.48). The 67 pooled operators average 5.19. The report advises treating differences smaller than about 10 percentage points, or half a point of score, as noise.
The state rows differ in what they show. Georgia's 47 operators have FAQ content on 28% of sites, newsletter signup on 32%, online booking on 12% and a stale copyright year on 29% (40 sites read). Alabama's 25 show 35%, 35%, 4% and 30%, South Carolina's 22 show 15%, 35%, 5% and 45%, and North Carolina's 21 show 5%, 16%, 16% and 58%. The pooled 67 show 31%, 25%, 10% and 32%. Even the largest state rests on 40 sites read, and the smaller ones on 19 to 23.
How Buyers Search and Book
The audit shows what a visitor finds on a homepage, not how any buyer searches, so the buyer description is general guidance. The homepage scan found:
10% of the 163 upland sites show an online booking engine (16 sites), a little above 8% for all audited hunting operators and far below 27.0% in the benchmark. Upland ranks second of eight species tags for booking share.
26% carry FAQ content, and only 3 of 163 mark answers up with FAQ structured data, although 65% have some structured data, much of it added automatically by website builders.
28% offer a newsletter signup, a little below the benchmark's 32.7%.
36% of sites with a detectable copyright year show 2023 or earlier, against 25.0% in the benchmark.
The questions a hunt buyer asks are specific: what the hunt includes and costs, whether the birds are wild, released or both, whether dogs and guides are provided, party size, licenses, lodging and weather. For hunts sold by phone and deposit a low booking rate is not a surprise. A buyer who finds the site late in the evening still has nothing to act on until morning.
The report's general guidance is that buyers start with a place and a kind of hunt, such as a state or region plus "quail hunt", "plantation hunt" or "bird hunting preserve". Then they look for what the hunt includes and costs, whether the birds are wild, released or both, whether dogs and guides are provided, how many hunters make a party, how many birds to expect, what licenses a guest needs, where to stay and what happens in bad weather. Each answer is a short page section a competitor in the same state may not have.
The Season and Booking Calendar
The calendar is general guidance, not audit or public data, and it gives no season dates. It runs in four phases: spring and summer, late summer and early fall, main season, and late season and after. The pattern is that upland demand is concentrated in the cooler months, most of the selling is done before the season starts, and the best-informed buyers book when state dates are announced.
Phase by phase, the report suggests the following. In spring and summer, close out the season by thanking guests, collecting reviews and photos with permission and asking who wants next year's dates, and publish next season's package descriptions, party sizes and policies. In late summer and early fall, open a waiting list for past guests, post the state's season dates as soon as they are published, add availability and a deposit step, and update the FAQ for current license requirements. In the main season, keep availability current, answer messages the same day, share honest hunt reports that say what kind of birds were hunted and ask every party for a review. In the late season and after, offer returning guests first choice of next year's dates and send a thank-you with a rebooking link.
It also sketches four buyers: the local day hunter, the out-of-state hunter, groups and corporate hosts, and returning guests and club members. Each needs something different from the site. The advice is to build your own calendar from your last two seasons of bookings.
Each buyer needs something specific. A local day hunter decides close to the date, often by phone or text, so offer a text or call link that works on a phone, current availability and a clear weather policy. An out-of-state hunter plans weeks or months ahead and asks what is included, so publish packages, a license checklist and lodging on site or through partners. Groups and corporate hosts book early for several guns and need a quote, a deposit and often lodging and meals, so give them a group page with capacity, minimums and a quick inquiry form. Returning guests and club members rebook when reminded, so keep an email list and a clear process for holding dates.
Six Moves for Operators
The report closes with six moves: say what kind of hunt it is; publish packages, dates and availability early; make it possible to book or hold a date online; answer buyers' questions and mark them up; give quail and upland its own page; and keep a list and use it. If you can do one thing this month, put your packages, the kind of hunt, the season's dates and a way to hold a date on the homepage, and make it work on a phone.
What It Means for Operators
The wild bird is not the whole business, and buyers know it. Where bobwhite are measured they are down sharply, so the most useful thing a plantation or preserve can publish is plain language about the birds: wild, released or both. That kind of honesty is a promise you can keep.
The storefront gap is real. Upland is the largest species group in the audit, and 79 of 182 operators carry no other species tag, but the rest sell a package with rooms, deer or clays, so the site has to show it. A quail or upland page, a date-hold step, a short FAQ and a current footer would put an operator ahead of most of the sample. On public land, hold the permit for the unit.
Read the Full Upland and Quail Report
The full report has every state table, the bobwhite indicators and the methodology.
Download the full 2026-27 Upland and Quail report (free with your email).
Frequently Asked Questions
How many quail hunters are there in the Southeast?
No source counts them. There is no federal count of quail or upland hunters, only state estimates in three states: Georgia (12,203 in 2022), Tennessee (about 7,000) and North Carolina (about 5,700 in 2021-22). Set against paid hunting license holders, roughly one in 67 to 105 hunts quail, which makes quail a niche within hunting. The 2022 National Survey counted 5.3 million small game hunters nationally, including rabbit and squirrel hunters, so that is only an upper bound.
How far have wild bobwhite declined?
Where a long-run index exists, the decline is steep. Georgia's population index is down more than 75% since 1966, Tennessee's Breeding Bird Survey index more than 90% since the 1960s, and Kentucky's mail carrier survey 67% from 1960 to 2023. South Carolina's 2023 whistling cock index sits 67.2% below its 1979 to 2023 average, and Louisiana's whistle counts are near the lowest since 1983. The measures and periods differ, so the bars are not directly comparable.
Has quail harvest fallen in Georgia?
Yes, in Georgia's telephone surveys. Estimated quail harvest fell from 504,683 birds in 2015 to 373,193 in 2022, down 26%, and estimated quail hunters fell from 15,060 to 12,203, down 19%. The 2022 harvest counts wild and pen-reared birds together, so it does not measure wild birds alone, and the 2015 label does not say. The comparison is indicative, not exact.
Does the report cover shooting preserves and pen-raised birds?
Not in numbers. The data collected do not include pheasant or chukar harvest, pen-raised bird counts, preserve counts or preserve hunter counts, and the audit's upland tag is a single category that does not separate wild-bird plantations from licensed shooting preserves. The report's general point is that preserves use released birds and do not rest on a wild population, so operators should say plainly whether birds are wild, released or both.
How do upland operators compare online with other hunting operators?
They look much alike. The 182 audited upland operators average 5.29 out of 10 on digital health, against 5.23 for all 493 audited hunting operators and 5.09 for the Southeast benchmark, and 36% score 4 or below. Online booking is 10% against 27.0% in the benchmark, and FAQ content is 26% against 36.9%. All rates come from homepage scans of 163 sites and are lower bounds.
Which states have the most upland operators in the audit?
Georgia has 47 of the 182 (26%), followed by Alabama (25), South Carolina (22), North Carolina (21) and Tennessee (12). Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina together hold 94 (52%). As a share of each state's audited hunting operators, upland is largest in Georgia (68%), South Carolina (55%) and Virginia (44%) and smallest in Kentucky (16%). A small count does not mean a state has few upland hunts, only that fewer could be verified.
Is quail usually the only thing an operator sells?
No. Of the 182 audited upland operators, 79 carry no other species tag. The rest also carry tags such as lodges (56), whitetail (41), sporting clays (38), turkey (29) and waterfowl (29). A plantation or preserve that sells a lodge stay, a hunt and a shoot is selling a package, and the site has to show it. The report advises giving quail and upland its own page with packages, photos and dates.
Can I guide quail hunts on public land?
Only with the managing agency's authorization. Wild-bird hunting on wildlife management areas, national wildlife refuges and national forests follows each agency's rules, and commercial guiding there generally requires a permit or special-use authorization. In Louisiana, paid hunting guiding is barred on WMAs, and in Mississippi there is no paid guiding on MDWFP WMAs. For Kentucky, confirm with KDFWR. National forests need a U.S. Forest Service special-use permit, and for other units, confirm with the managing agency.
Sources
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program, certified paid hunting license holders, license years 2020 to 2024
U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Outdoor Recreation Satellite Account, March 2026 release (2024 data)
National Bobwhite and Grassland Initiative, State of the Bobwhite 2023, hosted by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, and the state indices and surveys it reports
Pine & Marsh hunting audit, October 2026 (493 operators), and the Pine & Marsh Southeast audit, October 2026 (1,546 operators), used as the benchmark
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