Poland removes five bird species from the hunting list
In a bold move, Poland has passed a legislative amendment that will place five bird species — previously listed as huntable wild birds — under full protection in the future.
The reform is effected by a regulation (promulgated: 25 September 2025), which is set to enter into force on 2 January 2026, writes zakapolowania.pl.
The basis for the change is the regulation of 11 March 2005, in which Poland established an official list of huntable animals — including birds such as the hazel grouse, the common pochard, the tufted duck, the Eurasian woodcock, and the Eurasian coot.
The 2025 regulation specifies precisely that in the old list the letters l, u, w, y, z are to be deleted — and these letters correspond to the species named above. This indicates that Poland is deliberately removing those five bird species from the list of huntable animals. In Switzerland, all of these species except the hazel grouse may be hunted.
The new regulation enters into force on 2 January 2026. Until that date, the existing provisions remain in effect and hunting these species remains formally permitted (provided that the statutory hunting regulations and licences are complied with).
The move marks a turning point. While these bird species were previously legally huntable under Polish law, they will no longer be huntable in the future — a protected status with significant consequences:
- Hunting licences, shooting permits, and planning for the affected species must be adjusted or revoked.
- For environmental and bird protection organisations, this is a long-awaited success that also carries symbolic weight in the fight against species decline.
- For recreational hunters, it means that established practices and seasonal hunting plans will have to be restructured.
- The implementation period between promulgation and entry into force is critical: during this transitional phase, precise regulations and controls are needed to prevent unlawful hunting practices.
Environmentalists welcome the decision – they see it as recognition that certain bird populations were under pressure and that recreational hunting of these species was ecologically problematic. Public pressure had also increased in recent years.
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More on the subject of recreational hunting: In our dossiers on the criticism of recreational hunting gather fact-checks, analyses and background reports. The scientific evidence is presented in the overview Studies on the Effects of Recreational Hunting.
The position of IG Wild beim Wild: IG Wild beim Wild rejects recreational hunting. Our model is the canton of Geneva, which has managed without recreational hunting since 1974: without hunting seasons, without hunting dogs, without driven hunts, without high seats, without the animal cruelty and crime that go hand in hand with hunting season elsewhere. What has worked there for over fifty years disproves every position paper by JagdSchweiz. An association that bases its policy on claims it refutes in its own documents is not a professional organisation, but a factory for misinformation.
