Does Your Bird Need a CFIA Export Certificate to Leave Canada? (Not for the US — Here Is Why)

No — if you’re taking a personally-owned pet parrot or songbird from Canada to the United States, you generally don’t need a CFIA export certificate at all. Everywhere else, you do, and the requirement is real: an accredited veterinarian’s certificate, endorsed by a CFIA veterinary inspector, stamped “Government of Canada — CANADIAN FOOD INSPECTION AGENCY.”

The reason for the US exception is buried in two regulations that were never written with parrot owners in mind, and the connection between them is easy to miss. This article walks through both, what still applies even to the US, and what a certificate costs everywhere else.

Why your parrot counts as “poultry” under Canadian law

This is the part almost every owner gets wrong on their own. The Health of Animals Regulations define poultry as “domestic fowl and pigeons and includes any bird that is in captivity.” A caged parrot isn’t domestic fowl or a pigeon — but it is a bird in captivity, so it falls inside that definition anyway. By contrast, “livestock” in the same Regulations means only animals of the bovine, caprine, equine, ovine and porcine species. A bird is never livestock. Legally, your budgie, your African grey and your Amazon are all poultry the moment you try to export them.

That single definition is why the export rules for a pet bird sit in the same part of the Regulations as the rules for chickens and turkeys, and why the certificate discussed below is technically a poultry export certificate.

What section 69 actually requires

Part VIII of the Health of Animals Regulations governs exportation of animals, and section 69(1) sets three separate conditions for exporting poultry (which, as above, includes your bird):

• 69(1)(a) — evidence provided to a veterinary inspector or an accredited veterinarian that the bird meets the sanitary requirements of the importing country;
• 69(1)(b) — a certificate issued by a veterinary inspector, or by an accredited veterinarian and endorsed by a veterinary inspector, identifying the bird and confirming it was inspected and found free of communicable disease, with the date and place of inspection and any required test results;
• 69(1)(c) — information showing how the transport requirements elsewhere in the Regulations will be met.

Section 69(3) adds that the certificate itself must carry the official export stamp — the CFIA stamp described above — which only a veterinary inspector, or someone they’ve authorised, is allowed to apply.

The hinge: why the United States is different

Section 69(1.1) is the sentence that changes everything for the most common route out of Canada. It reads: paragraph (1)(b) — the certificate requirement — “does not apply in respect of animal germplasm, livestock or poultry destined for export to the United States if certification is not requested by the United States.”

Whether the certificate falls away, then, depends entirely on what the US side is asking for. And on the American side, 9 CFR 93.104(a) requires a veterinary health certificate for pet birds entering the US — except, as the regulation states, “as provided for in 93.101(b) and (c) of this part.” Section 93.101(c)(1) is the specific route for a personally-owned pet bird accompanied by its owner from Canada: it can enter with no certificate, no import permit and no quarantine, provided it passes port-of-entry veterinary inspection, the owner signs a statement confirming 90 days’ possession with no contact with poultry or other birds, the bird is caged before release, and it enters at a qualifying port such as those our complete walkthrough of the Canada–US border crossing covers in detail.

Put the two together: the US doesn’t ask a personally-owned pet bird on that route for a health certificate, so under 69(1.1) Canada doesn’t require the export certificate either. Washington doesn’t request it; Ottawa doesn’t demand it. That’s the whole hinge, and it’s a deliberate design in both countries’ rules, not a gap someone forgot to close.

Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, whether the 93.101(c)(1) owner-accompanied exception still applies if the bird travels as unaccompanied air cargo rather than physically with its owner, and whether that changes Canada’s 69(1.1) analysis. Please confirm with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency at 1-800-442-2342 before you rely on it for your own bird.

What doesn’t fall away, even heading to the US

Read 69(1.1) narrowly, because that’s how it’s written. It disapplies paragraph (1)(b) only — the certificate. It says nothing about paragraphs (1)(a) or (1)(c). On the text of the Regulations, the obligation to have evidence that your bird meets the importing country’s sanitary requirements, and to show how transport requirements will be met, is still there. In practice, for an owner travelling with a caged pet bird under the US owner-declaration route, it’s genuinely unclear what satisfies those two paragraphs when no certificate is being issued to document them.

Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, what specifically satisfies 69(1)(a) and 69(1)(c) for an owner-accompanied pet bird headed to the US, given that no certificate is issued on that route. Please confirm with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency at 1-800-442-2342 before you rely on it for your own bird.

Everywhere else, the certificate is not optional

The 69(1.1) exception is written for the United States only. For a bird headed to the UK, the EU, Australia, or anywhere other than the US, section 69(1)(b) applies in full: you need a certificate issued by a veterinary inspector, or issued by an accredited veterinarian and endorsed by a CFIA veterinary inspector, and it needs the official export stamp under 69(3). No destination country outside the US gets the shortcut, no matter how straightforward its own import rules might otherwise seem.

This is separate from — and in addition to — any CITES paperwork your bird may need if it’s a CITES-listed species — which is a question to settle species by species using ECCC’s CITES species checklist, not by assuming. A Health of Animals Regulations export certificate and a CITES export permit are two different regimes administered by two different agencies, and holding one doesn’t substitute for the other. Our complete Canadian guide to moving abroad with a pet bird lays out how the CITES side fits alongside this one.

What a CFIA export certificate costs (and why the number moves)

Fees for this certificate are set out in Part 11 of the CFIA Fees Notice under item 23. The figures below are for a pet parrot or songbird specifically — a bird that is poultry under the Regulations but isn’t a ratite, chicken, turkey, game bird, duck or goose, which are priced separately.

Destination	What applies	Fees Notice item	Fee
United States	Certificate generally not required for an owner-accompanied pet bird (see hinge above); if one is requested	23(4)(c)	$24.64 per certificate
Any country other than the US	Certificate required	23(6)(d)	$30.79 per certificate, or $615.92 if the importing country requires CFIA lab testing
Pigeons, game birds, ducks or geese, non-US destination	Certificate required	23(6)(c)	$92.38, or $1,847.72 if lab testing is required

These fees are re-indexed annually, effective every 31 March, so the figures above are current at time of writing and should be checked against the current CFIA Fees Notice before you budget for them. Processing time and the exact application process for the certificate itself aren’t something we can confirm from the published Fees Notice, so treat the paragraph below as a starting point, not a timeline.

Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, current processing time for a CFIA-endorsed poultry export certificate for a pet bird, and how to book the veterinary inspection appointment. Please confirm with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency at 1-800-442-2342 before you rely on it for your own bird.

Doves, pigeons and other non-parrot birds

If your bird is a pigeon or dove rather than a parrot or songbird, be aware the US side treats those species differently on entry — APHIS regulates doves and pigeons as poultry rather than pets, which is a separate question from the Canadian export certificate discussed here but affects the same trip. If that’s your bird, the US-side rules deserve their own check before you rely on anything above.

Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, how a pet dove or pigeon’s non-pet status on the US import side interacts with Canada’s section 69 export certificate requirement. Please confirm with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency at 1-800-442-2342 before you rely on it for your own bird.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a CFIA export certificate to fly with my parrot from Toronto to the US?

For a personally-owned pet bird travelling with you under the US owner-declaration route, generally no — because the US doesn’t request the certificate for that route, and section 69(1.1) switches off Canada’s requirement to issue one. The bird still needs to meet the US-side conditions (caging, the 90-day possession statement, port-of-entry inspection) described in our Canada–US border walkthrough.

Do I need one to take my bird to the UK, the EU or Australia?

Yes. The section 69(1.1) exception applies only to birds destined for the United States. For any other destination, the certificate under 69(1)(b) and the official CFIA export stamp under 69(3) apply in full.

Is a CFIA export certificate the same thing as a CITES export permit?

No. They’re separate regimes run by separate agencies — the Health of Animals Regulations certificate discussed here is a CFIA animal-health document, while a CITES permit is issued by Environment and Climate Change Canada and governs conservation-listed species. Whether your own bird needs the CITES side depends on its species, which you can check against ECCC’s CITES species checklist.

Who is allowed to issue and endorse the certificate?

Under section 69(1)(b), the certificate must be issued by a CFIA veterinary inspector, or issued by an accredited veterinarian and then endorsed by a veterinary inspector. Under 69(3), the official export stamp can only be applied by a veterinary inspector or someone they’ve authorised.

Why does my parrot count as “poultry” — it’s a companion bird?

Because the Health of Animals Regulations define poultry to include “any bird that is in captivity,” not just farmed species. It’s a legal classification for export purposes, not a description of how you keep your bird.

Does the certificate requirement change if I ship my bird instead of travelling with it?

That’s genuinely unclear from the published Regulations text — the US-side exception is described around an owner-accompanied bird, and we haven’t been able to confirm how an unaccompanied shipment would be treated on either side of the border. Confirm this with CFIA before booking anything as cargo.

Will the fees above still be accurate next year?

Not necessarily — the CFIA Fees Notice is re-indexed every 31 March, so treat the figures above as current at time of writing and check the live Fees Notice close to your travel date.

If your export paperwork or a CITES application is going to take weeks or months to sort out, your bird still needs somewhere stable to live in the meantime. That’s boarding, not customs help — Bird Sitting Toronto can look after your bird in Mississauga while the certificate, CITES permit or destination-country requirements come together, with monthly boarding starting at $360 for a small bird up to $720 for an extra-large bird (rates current at time of writing — check /pricing/ for today’s). See our page on boarding during a relocation, or get a quote directly on the booking page.

Related guides in this series

• Importing a Pet Bird to Canada: The Complete CFIA Guide (2026)
• Moving Abroad and You Can’t Take Your Bird: Board, Rehome, or Wait
• Long-Term Bird Boarding While You Relocate: 30, 60 and 90+ Days
• Taking Your Bird from Canada to the United States: Driving vs Flying
• Does Your Bird Need a US Import Permit, Health Certificate or Quarantine? (From Canada, Usually None of Them)
• The CITES Certificate of Ownership: What It Is and Who It Is Actually For
• The Canadian Rules for Moving a Bird That Nobody Quotes: Health of Animals Regulations, Part XII

Who to call before you travel

Confirm every requirement below with the agency itself. These are the people who
can actually authorise your bird’s movement — we cannot.

Every number below was checked against the agency’s own website on
27 July 2026. Government phone numbers and web pages still change without notice.
If one does not connect, find the agency through its own official site rather than trusting
what is printed here.

• Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) — import and export of live
  birds, health certificates, permits: 1-800-442-2342 from
  Canada and the US, or 1-613-773-2342 local and
  international, 8 am to 7 pm EST Monday to Friday except holidays. CFIA names
  services related to travelling with pets as something its area offices handle —
  for the GTA that is the Mississauga animal health office,
  289-247-4100, 8 am to 4 pm
  · inspection.canada.ca
• Environment and Climate Change Canada — CITES permitting — export and
  import permits for CITES-listed species, and what documents exist for repeat crossings:
  1-855-869-8670
  · cites@ec.gc.ca
• Canada Border Services Agency — what happens at the border itself,
  declarations and inspection fees: 1-800-461-9999, Monday to
  Friday 8 am to 4 pm local time. Press 0 to reach an agent; CBSA’s published
  service standard is to answer within 20 minutes
• USDA APHIS — the US pet-travel hub, with separate paths for import,
  export and interstate movement, and the list of which birds count as pets at all:
  aphis.usda.gov/pet-travel
• US Fish & Wildlife Service — CITES and Wild Bird Conservation Act
  permits, applied for through the ePermits portal at
  fws.gov/permits. The agency
  contact centre is 1-800-344-9453
  · info@fws.gov

What we can and cannot help with

We cannot help with paperwork. Bird Sitting Toronto is a bird
boarding and care business. We are not a customs broker, an immigration consultant, a
veterinary practice or a legal adviser. We do not file permits, complete applications or
deal with any agency on your behalf, and we cannot guarantee any outcome at any border.
Everything on this page is information only.

There are two things we can do. If your bird cannot travel with you
— because the paperwork is still in progress, the airline will not carry it, or the
timing simply does not work — we can board
your bird in the GTA for as long as you need, including by the month. And if it
becomes clear the bird genuinely cannot come with you, we can help you
rehome it to a good home rather
than leaving you to sort that out alone.

We publish this guide because our boarding clients ask us about it constantly, and
because the answer is genuinely hard to assemble from the primary sources.