Importing a Pet Bird to Canada: The Complete CFIA Guide (2026)

Importing a pet bird to Canada follows one of two completely different rulebooks depending on where the bird is coming from. From the United States, it is usually a same-day owner declaration at the border. From anywhere else, it is a Ministerial import permit, a home quarantine the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) must approve in advance, and a process that can take months. This guide walks through both.

Two completely different rulebooks — from the USA, and from everywhere else

The legal source for both paths is the same document: the Import Reference Document, which is incorporated by reference into the Health of Animals Regulations and therefore carries the force of law rather than being informal guidance. Inside it, birds of the parrot family and song birds get two entirely separate treatments.

Section 13 applies only to personally-owned pet parrots and song birds arriving from the United States. It is a self-contained route: if you meet its conditions, you may import the bird under section 13 itself, with no permit involved anywhere in the process. Every parrot or song bird arriving from a country other than the United States is a different animal in the eyes of this rule — it does not qualify as a “pet bird” under section 13 no matter how long you’ve owned it, and section 13(3) is explicit that those birds “may only be imported in accordance with Paragraph 12.(1)(a)” — a Ministerial import permit, issued case by case.

That split explains almost everything else in this article. Two owners flying home with an identically tame, identically loved conure can face two totally different processes, purely because of which country the flight departed from.

	From the United States (s.13)	From any other country (12(1)(a) permit)
Paperwork	Owner declaration to a Customs Officer, no vet certificate	Ministerial import permit + origin-country veterinary certificate
Quarantine	None specified in the Import Reference Document	Home quarantine, pre-approved by CFIA, condition of the permit
Who can bring the bird in	The owner only, and the owner must accompany the bird	Set out in the individual permit
Volume limit	Effectively one bird per household per 90 days	Set out in the individual permit

Before anything else: is your country of origin prohibited?

Before you plan a route, a permit application, or a quarantine, check whether CFIA currently prohibits bird imports from the country you’re moving from at all. This is a live restriction, not a formality, and it sits above everything else in this article — no permit, certificate or quarantine arrangement overrides it.

The HPAI-endemic prohibition list and what it means (there is no permit that fixes this)

CFIA maintains and updates restrictions tied to highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) status in the exporting country. Because this list changes as disease situations evolve, Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, the current list of countries and regions from which bird imports are prohibited or restricted due to HPAI, and the exact scope of the restriction. Please confirm with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency at 1-800-442-2342 before you rely on it for your own bird.. If your country is on it, there is no permit path around it — the restriction applies at the border regardless of how strong your paperwork is.

Part III of the Import Reference Document is blunt about the baseline: “the world is an undesignated area for regulated animals.” No country or region currently carries a standing designation as a lower-risk area, which is why every non-US import runs through the individual-permit route rather than a pre-cleared list of “safe” countries.

What to do instead if your country is on it

If your country of origin is currently restricted, your realistic options are to wait for the restriction to lift, arrange for the bird to be rehomed rather than travel, or board the bird in Canada with someone else while you sort out longer-term plans. None of these is a workaround for the restriction — they are what people actually do while it is in effect.

Path A — bringing a bird from the United States

If your bird has been in the US and is coming to Canada, this is the route that applies. For the border-crossing mechanics themselves — what to expect at the port of entry, timing, and what CBSA officers actually ask — see our companion walkthrough, Taking Your Bird Across the Canada-US Border. The details below cover what section 13 legally requires of you.

The owner declaration to CBSA: the four things you must be able to say truthfully

Under section 13 of the Import Reference Document, a personally-owned pet parrot or song bird from the United States needs no veterinary health certificate — only a declaration you make to a Customs Officer at the place of entry. Section 9 (Poultry) expressly excludes “songbirds and parrots referred to in section 13” from the poultry certificate requirement, so there is no certificate hiding in a different section either.

To use this route, you need to be able to say, truthfully, that:

• You are the bird’s owner, and you are accompanying it in person — a family member cannot bring your bird in for you under section 13.
• It is your personal pet and is not for sale.
• It has not been in contact with other birds.
• It has been in your personal possession in Canada or the United States for the 90 days immediately preceding the date of entry.

The 90-days-immediately-before-entry possession rule

The 90-day clock runs to the date of entry — not to the date you apply for anything, since there is nothing to apply for — and the possession has to have been in Canada or the United States specifically. Time spent with the bird in a third country doesn’t count toward it.

“No contact with other birds” — what that means if yours boarded or saw a vet

The Import Reference Document states the “no contact with other birds” condition but does not define what counts as contact in a shared airspace, a boarding facility, or a veterinary waiting room. Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, whether professional boarding, grooming, or a veterinary visit where other birds are present breaks the “no contact with other birds” declaration under s.13. Please confirm with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency at 1-800-442-2342 before you rely on it for your own bird.. If your bird has boarded, been groomed alongside other birds, or shared a vet waiting room recently, confirm this before you rely on the declaration.

The one-import-per-household-per-90-days rule that catches couples splitting a flock

There’s a limit that rarely gets published anywhere but sits directly in the regulation’s logic: no member of the importer’s household may have imported a bird under section 13 during the 90 days immediately preceding the date of entry. In effect, this is one pet bird per household per 90 days through this route. Couples who try to split a small flock across two trips, or two people, to get around it will find the household — not the individual — is what’s being counted.

The border inspection fee and booking your CFIA appointment

Expect a border inspection fee and, in many cases, a requirement to arrange your CFIA appointment ahead of arrival rather than showing up unannounced. Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, the current CBSA/CFIA border inspection fee amount and fee code, and how far in advance a CFIA appointment must be booked for a live pet bird import. Please confirm with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency at 1-800-442-2342 before you rely on it for your own bird.. Confirm both before you travel; a missed appointment window can hold your bird at the border even when your declaration itself is in order.

Path B — bringing a bird from any other country

Every parrot or song bird arriving from anywhere other than the United States falls outside section 13 entirely and needs a Ministerial import permit under paragraph 12(1)(a) of the Health of Animals Regulations. This is the slower, paperwork-heavy path, and it’s the one most newcomers to the GTA are actually on. Our plain-English companion piece, Bringing a Pet Bird Into Canada: The CFIA Rules Explained in Plain English, walks through the same ground with less regulatory language if you want a second pass.

The CFIA import permit application

You apply to CFIA for an individual import permit before the bird travels — this is not something you can arrange retroactively at the border. Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, the current application form/reference number, whether it’s submitted through the My CFIA portal, and whether single-use versus multiple-use permits are available. Please confirm with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency at 1-800-442-2342 before you rely on it for your own bird.. Build in real lead time; a permit that has to be issued before the bird can legally travel is not something to start a week before your flight.

Getting your home approved as a quarantine premises

This is typically the longest step in the whole process, and the one people underestimate. As a condition of the permit, your home (or another designated location) generally has to be inspected and pre-approved by CFIA as a quarantine premises before the bird arrives — not after. Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, the current criteria CFIA uses to approve a home as a quarantine premises, including required separation from other birds, ventilation, and biosecurity measures, and the typical lead time to get a site approved. Please confirm with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency at 1-800-442-2342 before you rely on it for your own bird.. Start this conversation with CFIA as early as possible; it is realistically the bottleneck on your whole timeline, not the flight or the certificate.

Condos, apartments and rentals: can you host an approved quarantine?

Whether a condo, an apartment, or a rental unit can qualify as an approved quarantine premises depends on the same site criteria above, and CFIA assesses each location individually rather than against a public checklist you can self-certify against. Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, whether shared-building airflow, shared hallways, or landlord consent affect quarantine premises approval, and how CFIA treats multi-unit residential buildings specifically. Please confirm with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency at 1-800-442-2342 before you rely on it for your own bird.. If you live in a condo or a rental, raise this with CFIA before you commit to a move date, not after.

The origin-country certificate must come from the central veterinary authority, not your vet

The permit will require a health certificate from the exporting country, but that certificate generally has to be issued or endorsed by that country’s central (national) veterinary authority — the government body responsible for animal health — rather than simply a private veterinarian’s letter. Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, the exact certifying-authority requirement for your bird’s country of origin, and whether a private vet’s signature must be countersigned by the national authority. Please confirm with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency at 1-800-442-2342 before you rely on it for your own bird..

The certification windows your exporting country’s vet must meet

Import permits for birds from outside the US commonly specify a series of time windows the origin-country certificate has to satisfy — how long the bird must have lived in that country before shipping, how recently before departure it was examined, and whether it must be free of vaccination against specific avian diseases such as Newcastle disease. Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, the exact residency period, pre-export examination window, and vaccination-exclusion requirements that apply to your specific permit. Please confirm with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency at 1-800-442-2342 before you rely on it for your own bird.. These figures are set out in the individual permit CFIA issues you, not in a single published table, so don’t rely on a number you’ve seen for someone else’s bird.

The post-arrival quarantine, step by step

Non-US imports come with a mandatory home quarantine period as a condition of the permit. Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, the exact quarantine duration currently required. Please confirm with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency at 1-800-442-2342 before you rely on it for your own bird.. During that period, the bird stays isolated at the approved premises, away from other birds, while CFIA monitors for signs of disease.

Mid-quarantine testing: what to expect

At some point during quarantine, a CFIA veterinarian carries out testing on the bird — commonly described as a cloacal swab — to screen for disease before the bird is released from quarantine. Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, the exact timing of mid-quarantine testing, and the process if a result comes back positive or inconclusive, including whether retesting, extended quarantine, or removal from Canada can result. Please confirm with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency at 1-800-442-2342 before you rely on it for your own bird.. Whatever the outcome, Part IV of the Import Reference Document is clear about the fallback: where an animal doesn’t qualify to remain, the importer will be ordered to remove it from Canada under section 18 of the Health of Animals Act within a specified period, and must comply.

Psittacosis treatment during quarantine

Psittacosis (chlamydiosis) often comes up in the context of parrot quarantine. Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, whether psittacosis treatment is currently recommended or mandated as part of the quarantine protocol for imported birds. Please confirm with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency at 1-800-442-2342 before you rely on it for your own bird.. Don’t assume either way until you’ve confirmed it against your specific permit.

How many birds can one permit cover?

There’s a commonly cited guideline capping the number of psittacine (parrot-family) and other birds that can move on a single import permit. Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, the current guideline numbers for psittacine and non-psittacine birds per permit, and whether it’s a hard cap or a guideline CFIA can vary. Please confirm with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency at 1-800-442-2342 before you rely on it for your own bird.. Treat any number you’ve seen quoted elsewhere as a starting point for a conversation with CFIA, not a guarantee for your own application.

Newcomers and settlers — what immigration status does and does not get you

Moving to Canada as a newcomer, returning resident, or temporary worker does not change which CFIA and CBSA rules apply to your bird. The Import Reference Document’s requirements attach to the bird and the country it’s coming from, not to your immigration category. Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, whether any immigration-related program offers an exemption or expedited path for pet bird imports. Please confirm with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency at 1-800-442-2342 before you rely on it for your own bird. — we’re not aware of one, but this is worth confirming directly if your situation is unusual. If you’re planning a broader move rather than just the bird’s paperwork, our guide to Moving Abroad With a Pet Bird covers the wider relocation picture.

The Mexico land-transit trap

If your route to Canada passes through Mexico — a layover, a land border crossing, or a multi-leg drive — your bird may be considered to have entered Mexico even briefly, which can trigger that country’s own import and export requirements on top of Canada’s. Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, whether a layover or land transit through Mexico with a pet bird triggers Mexican import/export requirements, and what documentation SENASICA (Mexico’s animal health authority) requires. Please confirm with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency at 1-800-442-2342 before you rely on it for your own bird.. Don’t assume a connecting flight or a drive-through crossing is invisible to Mexican authorities; confirm it before you book the route.

If your bird cannot come with you: what people actually do

Sometimes the timeline doesn’t work — quarantine premises approval is taking longer than the move date allows, or a prohibited-country restriction is in effect, or the logistics simply don’t line up. In that situation, owners typically choose one of two things: board the bird somewhere stable until the process clears, or rehome it if it genuinely can’t come at all. Our piece on Boarding, Staged Relocation and the Rehoming Question goes into both options in more depth.

Bird Sitting Toronto boards birds by the day, week or month at its Mississauga location, with daily photo and video updates through a client portal. For a permit process that can run for months rather than days, the monthly rate is the relevant one to budget against:

Bird size	Examples	Monthly rate
Small	Budgie, canary, finch	$360/month
Medium	Conure, cockatiel, Quaker	$480/month
Large	Caique, ringneck, pionus	$600/month
Extra large	Eclectus, African grey, cockatoo	$720/month

Rates current at time of writing — check /pricing/ for today’s. To be clear about scope: Bird Sitting Toronto boards birds and helps with rehoming where a bird genuinely can’t travel. It does not file permits, complete applications, liaise with CFIA or CBSA on your behalf, act as a customs broker, or give immigration advice — everything above is information only, and CFIA, CBSA and (where relevant) the exporting country’s own authorities are who you need for the paperwork itself.

How to run AIRS for your exact case in five minutes

CFIA’s Automated Import Reference System (AIRS) is built to give you a country-and-species-specific answer rather than the general rules in this article. Enter your bird’s species and country of origin, and it will tell you which permit, certificate and quarantine conditions apply to your exact case. Because AIRS output is generated live from current policy, treat it as more current than anything printed here, and use the CFIA number at the bottom of this page if the tool’s output is unclear or seems to conflict with what you’ve read elsewhere.

CITES is a separate approval and CFIA will not check it for you

CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) and CFIA’s import rules are two separate regimes that happen to both apply to the same bird. CFIA’s permit process governs animal health and disease risk; CITES governs conservation status, and in Canada it’s administered separately by Environment and Climate Change Canada, not CFIA. A CFIA import permit does not confirm your CITES paperwork is in order, and CFIA will not check it for you — you need to sort CITES separately if your species is listed.

This same “two separate boxes” logic shows up on the US side of this cluster in a way worth flagging here: under the US Wild Bird Conservation Act, 50 CFR 15.33 sets out an approved list of captive-bred species that can be imported into the US regardless of CITES status. A bird can be CITES-listed but still on the approved list, or CITES-unlisted but still barred by the WBCA — the two checks are genuinely independent, and conflating them is one of the most common mistakes in this space.

Frequently asked questions

Does my bird need a permit if it’s coming from the United States?

No — under section 13 of the Import Reference Document, a personally-owned pet parrot or song bird from the US needs only an owner declaration to a Customs Officer, not a permit or a veterinary certificate. Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, this remains current for your specific species and situation. Please confirm with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency at 1-800-442-2342 before you rely on it for your own bird..

What if my bird has lived with me for less than 90 days?

Then it doesn’t meet the section 13 possession requirement, and the US declaration route isn’t available to you for this trip. You’d need to look at the general import-permit route that applies to non-US arrivals, or wait until the 90-day clock is satisfied.

Can my spouse bring our second bird in under section 13 if I already brought one in this quarter?

No. The rule limits imports under section 13 to one per household in any 90-day period, not one per person — a second household member importing a second bird within that window falls outside the section 13 route regardless of whose name is on the declaration.

My bird is a rescue with no paperwork — can I still get a US import permit for it?

Possibly. Under 50 CFR 15.25(a)(5)(ii), acceptable proof of legal acquisition includes a CITES permit copy, or — where none exists — a seller’s receipt or signed statement giving name, address, date of sale and species, or a signed breeder’s certificate. A rescue bird without formal paperwork may still qualify if you can obtain one of these.

I’m a Canadian who has lived outside the US for over a year — can I still get a personal pet permit under 15.25?

On the face of the regulation, yes. 50 CFR 15.25 does not require US citizenship or returning-resident status; its stated criterion, in both the application requirements and the issuance criteria, is documented continuous residence outside the United States for at least one year. A Canadian who has lived in Canada for a year or more meets that criterion as written.

How many birds can I bring in as personal pets under 15.25?

No more than two exotic birds as personal pets in any year — this cap appears three separate times in 50 CFR 15.25, as an application rule, an issuance criterion, and a standing permit condition. It also comes with a standing condition that the bird cannot be sold after it’s imported into the US.

Is my species one of the “hard” ones for a US import?

If it’s an African grey, any macaw, any amazon, any cockatoo, an eclectus, a caique, a senegal, a pionus, or any conure other than the Jendaya conure, it does not appear on the WBCA approved species list (50 CFR 15.33), so the import prohibition applies and you’ll need a permit route such as 15.25. Budgies, cockatiels, Indian ringnecks, peach-faced and masked lovebirds, Jendaya conures, lineolated parakeets, Pacific parrotlets, Neophema parrots, rosellas, Alexandrine parakeets and scaly-breasted lorikeets are on the approved list.

Does the CFIA permit process move faster if I’m in a hurry to relocate?

Not by default — Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, whether CFIA offers any expedited processing for import permits or quarantine premises approval, and under what circumstances. Please confirm with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency at 1-800-442-2342 before you rely on it for your own bird.. Build your relocation timeline around the permit and quarantine approval, not the other way around.

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.

Check these numbers before you rely on them. They were correct when this
page was last reviewed, but government phone numbers, email addresses and web pages change
without notice and we have not re-verified them today. If a number does not connect, find
the agency through its own official website rather than trusting what is printed here.

• Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) — import/export of live
  birds, health certificates, quarantine: 1-800-442-2342
  · 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
• USDA APHIS Veterinary Services — US import permits and port
  inspection: aphis.usda.gov/pet-travel
• US Fish & Wildlife Service, Office of Law Enforcement — CITES
  and Wild Bird Conservation Act: 1-800-358-2104

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 clients ask constantly and nobody else has written
it properly for bird owners.