Bay duck shooters should have plenty of young ducks in their sights for the game bird season starting in May.
Fish & Game senior officer Mathew McDougall said favourable findings from a recent operation to trap and band mallard and grey ducks would put a smile on hunters' faces.
A thousand ducks were banded at sites along the East Coast and Bay of Plenty, and information collected on the age and sex of the birds.
"Most of the birds trapped were juveniles, and at more than 80 per cent, it was the most we've ever recorded," Mr McDougall said. "This is good news for the game bird harvest in that these young birds, who haven't learned the lessons of older and wiser birds, are the ones which often end up in the firing line."
At the same time, however, the banding exercise failed to turn up many adult mallard and grey ducks. "It's a bit of an enigma - the trap sample usually gives us an indication of the population at large but this year we caught very few adults. In some parts of the region we struggled to catch any birds. More research is required to pin down what is happening with these species."
Fish & Game Eastern Region was considering a six-week season with a 10-bird-a-day limit.
Staff found that Paradise shelduck populations are stable.