Which Parrot Species Are Hardest to Move Internationally (CITES Tiers Explained)

The parrots that are hardest to move across a border are not the rare ones — they’re the popular ones. African greys, every macaw, every amazon, every cockatoo, eclectus, caiques, senegals and pionus, and every conure except the Jendaya all fail the United States’ import test for exotic birds. Budgerigars, cockatiels and Indian ringnecks generally pass it. The difference comes down to two separate rules, and most articles on this topic run them together.

Two different questions, not one

“Is my bird hard to move internationally” is really two questions layered on top of each other, and they don’t always point the same way.

The first is the export side: what does your own country require to let the bird leave? For Canada, that depends on the bird’s CITES appendix. Environment and Climate Change Canada’s guidance is that an Appendix I animal leaving Canada needs a Canadian CITES export permit and an import permit from the destination country, while an Appendix II bird needs only the Canadian export permit.

The second is the destination’s own import law, which is a completely separate piece of legislation and has nothing to do with CITES appendices as such. For the United States, that law is the Wild Bird Conservation Act (WBCA), and it is where most of the real difficulty in this article lives.

A bird can be easy on one axis and hard on the other, which is exactly why a simple “is my species CITES-listed?” search leads people astray. This article works through the US axis in detail, because it’s the one with a published, checkable list. For the export side and for a full species-by-species CITES lookup, see our companion guide, Does Your Parrot Need a CITES Permit? A Species-by-Species Lookup for Canadian Owners — we won’t re-argue the permit mechanics here.

The US test: two conditions, both required

The rule that actually decides whether a species can enter the United States is 50 CFR 15.11(b). It makes it unlawful to import an exotic bird species that is listed in the CITES appendices and is not on the approved list in subpart D — unless a permit is issued under subpart C. Both conditions have to be true for the prohibition to bite: CITES-listed, and absent from the approved list.

That means a species that isn’t CITES-listed at all isn’t caught by 15.11(b) in the first place — though 15.11(c) separately catches non-CITES species on a prohibited species list, and 15.11(d) catches birds from prohibited countries. Those are narrower traps and worth knowing about, but the approved-list test in 15.11(b) is the one that decides the fate of almost every common pet parrot, so that’s what the rest of this article focuses on.

The “approved list” lives in 15.33, and it’s the single most useful document for answering “is my bird one of the hard ones.”

The commonly kept parrots that fail the US test

Here is the finding that answers most readers’ question directly: the following commonly kept parrots do not appear on the 15.33 approved list, which means the WBCA prohibition applies to them and a permit route such as 15.25 is needed to bring one into the US.

Group	On the 15.33 approved list?
African grey	No
All macaws	No
All amazons	No
All cockatoos	No
Eclectus	No
Caiques	No
Senegals	No
Pionus	No
Conures (all except the Jendaya)	No

They’re hard precisely because they’re popular — these are exactly the parrots most likely to be someone’s actual bird. If you own one of these, don’t read this as a dead end; the permit route below is real and it works. It’s just paperwork and time, not a ban.

The approved list is two lists, and some entries are narrower than a species

This is the part almost nobody gets right, and it’s worth slowing down for.

Paragraph 15.33(a) is the captive-bred list. A separate paragraph, 15.33(b), covers non-captive-bred species and names countries as part of the entry itself — so for a wild-caught bird, the country of origin matters as much as the species. That means “is my species on the list” is actually the wrong question. The right one is: is my bird captive-bred, and is its exact entry on the captive-bred list?

That last word — exact — matters more than it sounds like it should. Several entries in 15.33(a) are narrower than a species name:

• The lineolated parakeet appears only as Bolborhynchus lineola (blue form), (yellow form) and (white form).
• The Pacific parrotlet appears only as Forpus coelestis (lutino form), (yellow form), (blue form) and (cinnamon form).
• The Alexandrine parakeet appears only as Psittacula eupatria (blue form) and (lutino form).

A normal green Alexandrine is therefore not on the list, even though “Psittacula eupatria” is printed there — the colour form is part of the legal entry, not a footnote to it. One entry goes even narrower, down to subspecies: the Indian ringneck is listed as Psittacula krameri manillensis, not the species as a whole. Read the exact printed entry every time. Never rely on the common name.

Being on the list is not a clear run

Even a species that clears 15.33 isn’t automatically home free. Footnote 1 to the table, attached to the golden-shouldered parakeet (Psephotus chrysopterygius), states plainly that permits are still required for that species under part 17 of the same chapter — the separate endangered and threatened wildlife regime. The approved list only lifts the 15.11 prohibition. It says nothing about any other permit a species might need under a different part of the same law.

The easier end of the list

There’s good news too, and it deserves equal billing. The following appear on the 15.33(a) captive-bred approved list, meaning the section 15.11 prohibition is lifted for a captive-bred bird of the exact listed form:

• Budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus)
• Cockatiel (Nymphicus hollandicus)
• Masked and peach-faced lovebirds (Agapornis personata, A. roseicollis)
• Bourke’s, blue-winged, elegant, turquoise and scarlet-chested parrots (Neophema spp.)
• The rosellas (Platycercus spp.)
• Princess, regent and superb parrots (Polytelis spp.)
• Red-rumped and mulga parakeets (Psephotus spp.)
• Indian ringneck (Psittacula krameri manillensis)
• Jendaya conure (Aratinga jandaya)

Be precise about what that does and doesn’t mean. What’s confirmed is that these are on the 15.33 captive-bred list, which lifts the 15.11 import prohibition for a captive-bred bird of that exact entry. It does not tell you their current CITES appendix status — that’s a separate question we haven’t verified here. Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, current CITES appendix listing for each of the above species — CITES Secretariat (cites.org) or ECCC. Please confirm with Environment and Climate Change Canada at 1-855-869-8670 or cites@ec.gc.ca before you rely on it for your own bird. Don’t let “easy for the US import test” become “easy everywhere.”

If your bird is on the hard list: the personal-pet permit route

A species failing the 15.33 test isn’t a ban — it’s a different, slower route. 15.25 sets out a personal-pet permit for exactly this situation, and the Director’s decision considers three things in particular: whether the import would be detrimental to the species’ survival in the wild; whether the bird is a personal pet owned by an applicant who has continuously resided outside the United States for at least one year with no intention to sell it; and whether the applicant has imported no more than two birds in the previous 12 months. Note that the residence test is about the applicant’s own residence history, not their citizenship — which is the point Canadian owners most often ask about.

There’s a catch that trips up short trips specifically: 15.11 contains no exemption for a temporary, brief or accompanying-pet import. A weekend across the border with a hard-list parrot doesn’t fall outside the prohibition just because the stay is short. If you’re weighing a short visit against a genuine move, our guide on Taking Your Bird from Canada to the United States walks through the accompanied-pet route that applies to a different, much more common scenario — a bird staying with its owner rather than being formally imported.

Whether your specific bird’s documentation would satisfy the captive-bred standard the permit requires is a question for USFWS, not something we can confirm from here. Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, whether a specific bird’s breeder paperwork meets the captive-bred documentation standard required for a 15.25 application. Please confirm with the US Fish and Wildlife Service at 1-800-344-9453 or fws.gov/permits before you rely on it for your own bird.

A rough difficulty ranking — and its limit

Putting the two axes together gives a rough ranking, but it only holds for the United States as a destination, and only as far as we’ve verified.

Species / group	On US 15.33 approved list?	CITES appendix
African grey	No	I (changed 2017) — see note below
Macaws	No	Not confirmed — ask them
Amazons	No	Not confirmed — ask them
Cockatoos	No	Not confirmed — ask them
Eclectus, caiques, senegals, pionus	No	Not confirmed — ask them
Conures (except Jendaya)	No	Not confirmed — ask them
Budgerigar, cockatiel, Indian ringneck, Jendaya conure	Yes	Not confirmed — ask them

On this reading, an African grey is the hardest common case for a US move: it’s absent from the 15.33 approved list, and it carries an Appendix I listing that — per ECCC — adds a destination-country import permit on top of the Canadian export permit. Our guide African Greys and CITES Appendix I: What Changed in 2017 and What It Means Now covers that species specifically.

For every other destination country, the ranking may well differ, and we have not checked each one — treat this table as a US-specific starting point, not a global answer. Two open questions came up more than once while researching this piece and haven’t been resolved anywhere we could find in writing; if that’s the position you’re in, see Two Unsettled Questions About Taking a Parrot to the US (and How to Get an Answer in Writing).

Where boarding actually fits in

We’ll say this plainly, against our own interest: discovering your macaw or your African grey is on the hard list is exactly the moment people start searching for bird boarding or rehoming, and those are the two things we sell. Hard is not the same as impossible. The 15.25 permit route exists and is the thing to actually pursue — the difficulty here is paperwork and time, not a ban, and we are not the ones who can move that paperwork forward.

Bird Sitting Toronto does not file permits, complete applications, liaise with USFWS or CITES authorities, or give immigration advice of any kind. What we can honestly help with is narrower: if your bird is already in Canada and your permit application is going to take weeks or months to process, it needs somewhere stable to live in the meantime. That’s ordinary long-term boarding, and it’s covered in Long-Term Bird Boarding While You Relocate: 30, 60 and 90+ Days.

Frequently asked questions

Is a species being “hard to move” the same as being CITES Appendix I?

No, and conflating the two is the most common mistake in this space. CITES appendix status is about the export side and, per ECCC, the level of permitting the destination country requires. The 15.33 approved list is a completely separate US import rule with its own criteria. A bird can be Appendix II and still fail the US approved-list test, or vice versa.

My parrot’s species is on the 15.33 list. Does that mean it’s fine to bring to the US?

It means the section 15.11 prohibition is lifted for that exact listed entry, which for several species is a specific colour form, not the whole species. It doesn’t mean no other US requirement applies, and it says nothing at all about the export side back in Canada. Check the exact entry, and check the CITES appendix separately. Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, whether the specific bird’s exact colour form or subspecies matches the 15.33 entry. Please confirm with the US Fish and Wildlife Service at 1-800-344-9453 or fws.gov/permits before you rely on it for your own bird.

Why isn’t the Indian ringneck listed the same way as other parrots on 15.33?

Its entry is written at the subspecies level — Psittacula krameri manillensis — rather than the species. Other ringneck subspecies aren’t covered by that entry even if the common name “Indian ringneck” is used loosely for more than one.

My conure is a green-cheek, not a Jendaya. Does the Jendaya exception help me?

No. The Jendaya (Aratinga jandaya) is the only conure named on the 15.33 approved list. Every other conure, including green-cheeks, falls under the general WBCA prohibition and would need a permit route such as 15.25.

Can I just bring my macaw to the US for a short visit instead of a permanent move?

No — 15.11 doesn’t carve out an exception for short or temporary visits. A weekend trip with a hard-list bird is treated the same as a permanent import for the purposes of this prohibition.

Does being on the hard list mean my bird can never enter the United States?

No. It means the ordinary route is closed and the personal-pet permit route under 15.25 applies instead, with its own residence, non-sale and two-bird-per-year conditions. It’s slower and requires documentation, but it’s a real, working route.

Where can I check my bird’s current CITES appendix listing myself?

The CITES Secretariat maintains the official species database, and Environment and Climate Change Canada administers the Canadian export-permit side. We’d rather send you to the primary source than guess at an appendix listing for a species not covered in the verified list above.

If you’re mid-application and need somewhere for your bird to stay while the paperwork processes, get a boarding quote — we can’t move the permit forward, but we can look after the bird while you do.

Related guides in this series

• Moving Abroad and You Can’t Take Your Bird: Board, Rehome, or Wait
• Does Your Parrot Need a CITES Permit? A Species-by-Species Lookup for Canadian Owners
• Importing a Pet Bird to Canada: The Complete CFIA Guide (2026)
• Long-Term Bird Boarding While You Relocate: 30, 60 and 90+ Days
• Taking Your Bird from Canada to the United States: Driving vs Flying
• African Greys and CITES Appendix I: What Changed in 2017 and What It Means Now

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.