If you cannot find an answer to your question, please contact
us about the survey.
No! As of the 2023-24 hunting season, an account is no longer
needed for taking the survey. You can access your survey just by
entering your invitation code each time you visit the site. No
other information is needed. Please do not share your code with
anyone, and keep the email or paper invitation with the code so
that you can use it throughout the hunting season. If you lose it,
contact
us and we will send it to you via email.
We estimate hunter
activity and harvest of migratory birds at the state level, by
sampling from lists of HIP-registered hunters provided by each
state. Therefore, even though many hunters may hunt in more than
one state during a season, we can only include the hunting
information from the state in which the hunter was selected for a
survey. If you did register to hunt in more than one state, you
could be selected for multiple surveys. If so, you will receive
separate invitations for each one, and when you enter your
invitation code you will see more than one survey card on your
dashboard.
We assume the
hunting activity and harvest you report is done by one person. We
use this information to estimate the total hunting activity and
harvest in a state based on the number of hunters registered for
HIP in that state. If you report all the hunting information from
a group hunt, this will inflate our estimates of hunter activity
and harvest. We can only use the information from the person
selected for the survey.
No.The National Migratory Bird
Harvest Survey does not currently estimate harvest from
conservation or nuisance seasons.
We select hunters for this survey
based on their answers to the HIP hunting questions about their
hunting activity the previous year. This allows us to estimate
hunting activity and harvest with greater precision. Therefore, if
you are selected, it is important that you tell us about your
hunting activity and harvest, rather than someone else's.
Birds killed as a result of
hunting include those not retrieved. When a bird is knocked down
and the hunter can’t retrieve it, it may die of its wounds, be
killed by a predator, or recover. But, most knocked-down birds
probably don’t recover. Sometimes it’s hard to tell if a bird was
hit, much less if it died. A bird reacting to a near miss may look
wounded or it may appear to absorb a hit and keep flying. We ask
that you provide us with your best estimate of the number of birds
downed and lost.
If you are unable to remember the
specific days you hunted or the birds killed on each day, you can
choose to enter Season Totals on the survey page instead of
logging your daily hunts.
You can either send
us a request for your code using our Contact Us form, or by email
to fwsharvestsurvey@fws.gov. We will send you your invitation code via email .
No. We sample specific hunters
based on their answers to the HIP hunting questions. Only those
hunters contacted with an invitation may participate in the
survey, to ensure that the harvest estimates are unbiased and
precise.
Purpose: FWS collects this information in order to administer Migratory Bird Population and Harvest Surveys.
Routine Uses: This information may be shared in accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974 and the routine uses listed in System of Records Notice INTERIOR/FWS-26, Migratory Bird Population and Harvest Surveys - 80 FR 27183 (May 12, 2015).
Disclosure: Furnishing this information is voluntary; however, failure to provide all the requested information may prevent you from being able to participate in a Migratory Bird survey.
We are collecting this information subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. 3501) in order to estimate annual migratory bird harvest and to respond to requests made under the Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act of 1974. Your response is voluntary. According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, an agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. OMB has approved this collection of information and assigned Control No. 1018-0023.
We estimate it will take you an average of 3 to 5 minutes to complete the survey, including time to read instructions, gather information, complete, and submit the survey. Direct comments regarding the burden estimate or any other aspect of the form to the Service Information Clearance Officer, Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 5275 Leesburg Pike, MS: BPHC, Falls Church, VA 22041-3803, or via email at Info_Coll@fws.gov.