LAUREL, Md. – James Hautman of Chaska, Minnesota is the winner of the 2025 Federal Duck Stamp Art Contest with an acrylic painting of three buffleheads, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Friday, Sept. 19 in a news release. Hautman emerged as the winner after two days of competition, and the announcement was made at an in-person event and via livestream at Patuxent Research Refuge in Laurel, Maryland.

Hautman’s artwork will be made into the 2026-2027 Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp, or Duck Stamp, which will go on sale in late June 2026. This is Hautman’s seventh time winning the Federal Duck Stamp Art Contest. The FWS produces the Federal Duck Stamp, which raises approximately $40 million in sales each year. The funds support conservation of wetland habitat

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