Taking a Pet Bird from Canada into the EU

Taking a pet bird from Canada into the European Union in 2026 does not run on the same rulebook as taking one into Great Britain — even though a lot of the advice circulating online treats “Europe” as one destination. The EU caps a non-commercial movement at five pet birds, requires one of three pre-movement routes, and counts days differently than the British rules do. Get the two regimes mixed up and you can miss a deadline your bird needed to meet.

Why UK guidance won’t get your bird into the EU

Until the end of 2021, pet bird movements into EU member states ran on Commission Decision 2007/25. Great Britain left the EU and froze that decision in place after Brexit — its current pet bird certificate, GBHC611, still cites it by name as “Assimilated Commission Decision 2007/25.” The European Union did not freeze anything. It replaced 2007/25 from 1 January 2022 with two new instruments: Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/1933, which sets the conditions a bird must meet, and Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/1938, which sets out the certificate. On the EU’s own EUR-Lex register, 2007/25 is marked “No longer in force” and “Repealed by 32021R1938.”

That matters for a Canadian owner because a guide written for — or before — the British rules will hand you the wrong day-counts. The numbers that changed are exactly the ones that decide whether your bird is ready in time. If you’re weighing the UK route on the same trip, our guide to moving abroad when you can’t take your bird with you covers the broader decision of boarding, rehoming or waiting; treat the UK and EU rules below as two separate checklists, not one.

Where the EU and Great Britain rules actually differ

These are the four points where planning to the wrong country’s numbers costs an owner time, money, or the pre-movement route entirely.

Rule	European Union	Great Britain
Birds per non-commercial movement	Maximum five. A sixth bird takes the whole movement out of the non-commercial regime entirely, into commercial import rules.	No numeric cap for birds — the five-animal cap in Great Britain’s rules applies only to dogs, cats and ferrets.
Isolation-and-test route	At least 14 days’ isolation before dispatch; the H5/H7 antigen or genome test sample must be taken no earlier than the 7th day of isolation.	At least 10 days’ isolation before dispatch; the sample must be taken no earlier than the 3rd day.
Post-arrival period	At least 30 days, moving directly from the travellers’ point of entry to a household or residence, kept “under official control,” no shows, fairs or gatherings.	At least 30 days, same no-gatherings condition, but the rule does not use the words “under official control.”
Individual marking	Permanent, non-removable, legible marking with an alpha-numeric code — and it must be applied before isolation, testing or vaccination begins.	Marking required, but the EU’s before-isolation sequencing rule and its specific “alpha-numeric code” wording are not phrased the same way.

The isolation-and-test gap is the one that trips people up most. If you plan your bird’s isolation to the British 10-day, sample-on-day-3 figures and then try to use the same paperwork for an EU entry, you’re four days short and the test was drawn too early. Start from the EU’s own numbers if the EU is the actual destination.

Choosing your route before you book anything

Under Article 4(1)(b) of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/1933, a pet bird can meet the EU’s pre-movement conditions in one of three ways. Decide which one you’re aiming for before you book flights, because two of the three have a clock that starts running well before departure.

Route	What it requires	Timing
1. Listed country of origin + isolation	The bird originates from a territory or third country listed in Part 1 of Annex V, Annex XIV or Annex XIX to Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/404, and was isolated under official supervision, protected from contact with any other bird.	At least 30 days before dispatch.
2. Vaccination	A complete primary course of vaccination against avian influenza H5 and H7 (and revaccination where the manufacturer requires it), using a licensed, non-live-attenuated vaccine, given by an authorised or official veterinarian.	Within 6 months before dispatch and not later than 60 days before it.
3. Isolation + negative test	Isolation under veterinary supervision, plus a negative H5/H7 antigen or genome test.	At least 14 days’ isolation; sample taken no earlier than the 7th day.

Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, whether Canada appears on the lists of third countries in Part 1 of Annex V, Annex XIV or Annex XIX to Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/404, which route 1 requires — confirm with the destination EU Member State’s competent veterinary authority before relying on this route. Please confirm with the relevant agency listed at the bottom of this page before you rely on it for your own bird. Don’t assume either way. If Canada isn’t on the relevant list, route 1 simply isn’t available to you and you’d need route 2 or 3 instead.

If none of the three routes fit: the quarantine fallback

A bird that meets none of the three pre-movement routes can still enter the EU — it just goes straight into quarantine on arrival. Under Article 6 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/1933, the bird must be destined for a quarantine establishment formally approved under Article 14 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/2035 in the destination Member State, taken there directly from the travellers’ point of entry, and held for at least 30 days. It is “released from quarantine only on the written authorisation of an official veterinarian,” and the competent authority inspects the conditions — including mortality records — at the start and end of the period. Planning nothing in advance doesn’t get a bird turned away at the border; it means a month in an approved facility at the owner’s cost, with the exact fee a matter for that facility. Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, current fees and available capacity at an approved quarantine establishment in the destination Member State — ask that establishment or the Member State’s competent authority. Please confirm with the relevant agency listed at the bottom of this page before you rely on it for your own bird.

The marking sequencing trap

Article 3(1) of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/1933 requires a “permanent, non-removable, legible individual marking displaying an alpha-numeric code” — commonly a microchip or a closed leg ring, though Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, which specific marking methods the destination Member State’s competent authority accepts as satisfying this requirement — confirm before booking. Please confirm with the relevant agency listed at the bottom of this page before you rely on it for your own bird. Article 3(2) then adds the part that actually catches owners out: where the bird is travelling under one of the three pre-movement routes, the marking has to have been applied before the isolation, testing or vaccination started. Chip or ring the bird after the isolation clock has already begun and that route is invalidated — there’s no fixing it retroactively; the bird has to start the process again. The only exception is Article 3(3): if the bird is going the Article 6 quarantine route and travels in a container sealed by the country of dispatch’s competent authority before departure, staying sealed through quarantine, a description can substitute for the marking.

What happens once your bird lands

Article 5 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/1933 requires the bird to move directly from the travellers’ point of entry to a household or other residence in the EU, where it’s kept “under official control for a period of at least 30 days” and may not be entered in shows, fairs, exhibitions or other gatherings during that time. The “under official control” wording is stronger than Great Britain’s equivalent rule, which imposes the no-gatherings condition without that supervisory phrase. Exactly what “official control” looks like in practice — a mandatory vet visit, a registration step, a follow-up inspection — Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, how the destination EU Member State implements “official control” during the 30-day post-arrival period in practice — ask that Member State’s competent veterinary authority. Please confirm with the relevant agency listed at the bottom of this page before you rely on it for your own bird.

If your bird arrived from a country not on the relevant listed-country annex, Article 14(2)(d) requires entry through a designated travellers’ point of entry rather than any port of arrival — another reason to confirm the route before you fly rather than after you land.

The certificate itself

The document you actually carry is the veterinary certificate in the Annex to Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/1938 — not GBHC611, which is Great Britain’s separate form. Article 7 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/1933 requires it to be certified either by an official veterinarian in the country of dispatch, or by an authorised veterinarian whose certification is then endorsed by that country’s competent authority. That’s the same two-step shape as the Canadian export certificate discussed below. The certificate is completed on the basis of a written declaration by the owner that forms part of the certificate itself — including, where the bird is going the quarantine route, evidence that arrangements have already been made with an approved establishment.

Two more conditions from Article 4(1): the country of dispatch has to be a member of the World Organisation for Animal Health, and the bird needs a clinical inspection within 48 hours of, or on the last working day before, dispatch.

The Canadian side of the paperwork

This half runs on the same law as a UK-bound bird, covered in more detail in our guide to flying and driving a bird from Canada to the United States for context on how the export side generally works. Because the EU requires a veterinary certificate, the carve-out in section 69(1.1) of the Health of Animals Regulations doesn’t help you — it only ever disapplied paragraph 69(1)(b) for exports to the United States. For an EU-bound bird, the full section 69(1) applies, and Part XII of the Health of Animals Regulations governs the journey, including the IATA container standard that sections 148.1 and 150(5) make binding Canadian law for air transport.

Separately from all of the above, many parrot species also need CITES paperwork on the way out of Canada, quite apart from these veterinary entry rules — that’s a species-by-species question, not a general one, and our CITES permit lookup for Canadian owners is the place to check which category your bird falls into.

Why some older EU guidance disagrees with itself

Birds sit in Part B of Annex I to Regulation (EU) No 576/2013, not Part A, where dogs, cats and ferrets live. Article 14(3) of that regulation let individual Member States apply their own national rules to a Part B species until the European Commission adopted a delegated act specifically covering it. For birds, there wasn’t one until Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/1933, which applies from 1 January 2022. Before that date, Europe genuinely was a patchwork of national bird rules, and older guidance describing it that way was correct when it was written — it’s simply out of date now that a single harmonised regime exists.

Where boarding fits — and where it deliberately doesn’t

Here’s the part where our own service works against a pre-movement route rather than for it, and it’s worth saying before anything else about what Bird Sitting Toronto offers. Routes 1 and 3 above both require the bird to be isolated, under supervision, immediately before dispatch — 30 days for route 1, 14 for route 3. A boarding stay at a facility that houses other birds is not that isolation. If a bird spends its final weeks before departure boarding alongside other birds, it hasn’t met the isolation limb of either route, and the owner is left with the Article 6 quarantine fallback: 30 days in an approved facility after arrival, at their own cost.

Bird Sitting Toronto offers exactly two things to an owner relocating internationally: boarding, if the bird can’t travel with you, and help rehoming the bird if it genuinely can’t come at all. We don’t file permits, complete applications, liaise with CFIA, act as a customs broker, or advise on immigration — everything above is information only, and every fact in it should be confirmed with the relevant authority before you act on it.

Where boarding does help is the stretch of time before an EU move is locked in — while you’re still deciding on a route, waiting on a listed-country answer, or sorting out a vaccination schedule that starts months out. Our monthly boarding rates start at $360/month for a small bird up to $720/month for an extra-large one, covering daily photos and video, food, fresh produce and interaction (rates current at time of writing — check /pricing/ for today’s). Our guide to long-term boarding during a relocation walks through how that works for stays of 30, 60 or 90+ days — just not during the specific pre-dispatch isolation window a route requires, since that has to be true isolation, not boarding among other birds.

Frequently asked questions

Is Commission Decision 2007/25 still the rule for bringing a bird from Canada into the EU?

No. It applied until 31 December 2021 and was repealed by Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/1938, which took effect 1 January 2022 alongside Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/1933. If a guide cites 2007/25, it’s describing the pre-2022 regime.

How many pet birds can travel with me into the EU at once?

Up to five in a single non-commercial movement, under Article 2 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/1933. Bring a sixth bird on the same trip and Article 1(2)(a) takes the whole movement out of the non-commercial rules entirely, into commercial import requirements.

Does my bird need the avian influenza vaccine to enter the EU?

Only if you’re using that specific pre-movement route. Vaccination is one of three ways to meet the EU’s conditions — the other two are 30 days’ isolation from a listed country of origin, or 14 days’ isolation plus a negative H5/H7 test. You choose whichever route fits your bird’s history and timeline.

What happens if I don’t arrange isolation, vaccination or testing before I fly?

Your bird can still enter, but only into an approved quarantine establishment in the destination Member State for at least 30 days after arrival, released only on written authorisation from an official veterinarian, at your cost. It’s a fallback, not a refusal — but it’s a costly one to fall into by not planning ahead.

Is the EU’s five-bird limit per person or per trip?

It applies to a single non-commercial movement by an owner or an authorised person accompanying the bird — the regulation’s own wording is “which may accompany their owner or an authorised person, during a single non-commercial movement.”

Do I still need a CITES permit separately from these EU entry rules?

Possibly, and it’s a completely separate regime from the veterinary rules covered here — it depends on your bird’s species. Check our CITES permit lookup before you assume either way.

Can I board my bird at Bird Sitting Toronto while I sort out EU entry paperwork?

Yes, for the period before your final pre-dispatch isolation window needs to start — we’re not able to provide the supervised isolation a pre-movement route itself requires, since that has to happen apart from other birds. We don’t file permits or handle any part of the EU or Canadian paperwork; that’s for CFIA and your destination country’s authorities.

Does a UK-bound bird’s paperwork work for an EU-bound one?

No. They’re different certificates under different regulations with different day-counts — Great Britain applies its own assimilated 2013 rules, while the EU uses Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/1933 and Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/1938. Plan each leg to its own numbers.

If your bird needs somewhere stable to stay while your EU paperwork comes together, you can get a quote through our booking page.

Related guides in this series

• Moving Abroad and You Can’t Take Your Bird: Board, Rehome, or Wait
• 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
• Bringing a Pet Bird to Canada From Outside the US: Why You Need a Permit
• Can I Fly Inside Canada With My Parrot? Domestic Rules by Carrier

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
• The competent authority of your destination EU Member State — the EU has harmonised the pet-bird rules but not the offices that apply them: your bird is admitted by the country you land in, and it is that country’s competent authority that approves quarantine establishments and designates the travellers’ points of entry. Start from the European Commission’s pet movement pages: food.ec.europa.eu/animals/movement-pets_en

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.