Taking Your Bird from Canada to the United States: Driving vs Flying

Driving a pet bird to the United States means a land-border crossing with paper documents and a possible face-to-face vet check. Flying means airline cargo or cabin rules stacked on top of the same federal paperwork, often with tighter lead times. Neither route skips the requirements below — they just apply them differently.

The one-minute answer — driving vs flying, side by side

Whichever way you cross, the same three federal layers apply to your bird: USDA APHIS (animal health), a possible U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) wildlife-import layer if your species isn’t a “pet bird” for that purpose, and — coming back — CFIA on the Canadian side. Driving and flying differ mainly in where that paperwork gets checked and how much lead time you need.

	Driving	Flying
Where documents are checked	At the land port of entry, by a CBP officer and, if required, a USDA port veterinarian on site	Before travel (permit/paperwork approval) and again at check-in and/or a designated port of entry
Lead time needed	Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, minimum advance notice required to book a USDA port veterinarian inspection at a land port. Please confirm with USDA APHIS Veterinary Services at aphis.usda.gov/pet-travel before you rely on it for your own bird.	Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, minimum processing time for an APHIS bird import permit and any airline-specific advance notice. Please confirm with USDA APHIS Veterinary Services at aphis.usda.gov/pet-travel before you rely on it for your own bird.
US health certificate	Not required on the Canada pet-bird route — 9 CFR 93.104(a) excepts 93.101(c)	Not required on the Canada pet-bird route — 9 CFR 93.104(a) excepts 93.101(c)
Species not on the WBCA approved list (below)	Same federal permit requirement as flying — the land border does not exempt you	Same federal permit requirement as driving
Physical inspection	Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, which land ports have a USDA port veterinarian able to clear a live pet bird, and whether inspection is mandatory for every crossing. Please confirm with USDA APHIS Veterinary Services at aphis.usda.gov/pet-travel before you rely on it for your own bird.	Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, which airports/ports handle live pet bird clearance and whether cargo vs cabin travel changes the requirement. 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.

Both routes are covered in more procedural detail in our complete Canada–US border walkthrough. This article focuses on the choice between driving and flying, and on the one layer almost nobody explains: the Wild Bird Conservation Act.

First, is your bird even a “pet bird” to USDA?

USDA APHIS treats a personally owned bird travelling with its owner, in small numbers and not for sale, differently from a commercial poultry or bird shipment. Which category you fall into changes almost everything downstream — the forms, the inspection, and whether a health certificate alone is enough.

How many birds counts as a personal import rather than a commercial one

Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, the exact maximum number of birds that can travel under the personal-pet exemption before USDA APHIS treats the shipment as commercial poultry, and the precise definition of what counts as “personal” use. Please confirm with USDA APHIS Veterinary Services at aphis.usda.gov/pet-travel before you rely on it for your own bird.. If you’re travelling with more than a couple of birds — a small flock, a breeding pair plus offspring — don’t assume the personal-pet pathway automatically applies. Confirm the threshold before you plan the trip, not at the border.

Doves, pigeons, chickens, ducks, quail: tame, but not pet birds under this pathway

A tame dove or a hand-raised chicken is still, to USDA, a bird from a poultry-adjacent category rather than a “pet bird” in the parrot/songbird sense. These species are typically subject to a different set of entry requirements tied to poultry and disease-control rules rather than the personal-pet pathway. Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, which specific entry requirements apply to doves, pigeons, chickens, ducks and quail travelling as personal pets, and whether they differ from the parrot/songbird pathway. Please confirm with USDA APHIS Veterinary Services at aphis.usda.gov/pet-travel before you rely on it for your own bird.. If your bird isn’t a parrot or a typical cage songbird, check this before you build a driving or flying plan around the rest of this article.

Layer 1 — USDA APHIS, and the exception almost nobody mentions

USDA APHIS is the US agency responsible for animal health at the border. Its bird rules
live in 9 CFR part 93, subpart A, and they contain a
route built specifically for your situation.

9 CFR 93.101(c)(1) covers a pet bird offered for entry from
Canada that is a personal pet, is caged before release, and is imported by the owner.
On that route the regulation asks for two things: the bird passes veterinary inspection at the
port of entry under 93.105, and the owner signs a statement that the bird has been in their
possession for at least 90 days and during that time has not been in contact with poultry
or other birds — the regulation gives exhibitions and aviaries as the examples.

Now the part that changes how people plan. Three separate sections carve that route out of
the requirements everyone assumes apply:

• No import permit. 93.103(a)(1) requires one for pet, commercial,
  research, zoological and performing birds — “except as otherwise provided in
  93.101(b) and (c)”.
• No US health certificate. 93.104(a) requires a veterinary certificate
  for pet birds from any part of the world — “except as provided for in 93.101(b)
  and (c)”.
• No 30-day quarantine. 93.106(a) imposes a minimum 30-day quarantine on
  each lot of pet birds — “except as provided for in 93.101(c)”.

The same exception, written three times, in three different sections. That is a deliberate
scheme, not a drafting accident, and it mirrors what Canada does in the other direction with
its own owner-declaration route.

What it costs you if you fall outside it. A bird that is not from Canada,
or not personally owned, or not accompanied by its owner, faces the full regime — and
93.106(a) spells out what that means: a minimum of 30 days quarantine on an
“all-in, all-out” basis at a Customs port, at a USDA quarantine facility arranged
in advance, or at an approved private facility, with each psittacine individually legbanded
within 7 days and the records kept for 12 months. Where a permit is needed,
93.103(a)(1) names the forms: VS form 17-128 for ratites and hatching eggs of
ratites, and VS form 17-20 for other birds.

Read this next part carefully, because it is where people relax too early.
Everything above is the animal-health side. CITES and the Wild Bird Conservation Act
are a different system entirely, administered by a different agency under Title 50, and
they can stop a bird that 9 CFR 93 would happily admit. Clearing one has never meant
clearing the other. The next sections deal with that.

Layer 2 — the Canadian export side, and why it usually falls away

Start with a definition that decides everything and catches almost everyone. The
Health of Animals Regulations define poultry
as “domestic fowl and pigeons and includes any bird that is in captivity”. Your
parrot, in its cage, is poultry for the purposes of these Regulations. It is never
“livestock” — that word is defined narrowly as bovine, caprine, equine,
ovine and porcine animals.

That matters because section 69(1) is written about germplasm,
livestock and poultry. It says no person shall export them unless the exporter has given a
veterinary inspector or accredited veterinarian evidence that the animal meets the importing
country’s sanitary requirements, has obtained a certificate issued by a
veterinary inspector — or by an accredited veterinarian and endorsed by a veterinary
inspector — and has provided information about how the transport rules will be met.
Section 69(3) adds that the certificate must carry the official export stamp, which reads
“Government of Canada — CANADIAN FOOD INSPECTION AGENCY” and can only be
applied by a veterinary inspector or someone they authorise.

Now the hinge. Section 69(1.1) says that paragraph (1)(b) — the
certificate — “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.” And as the previous section set out, the United States does not request
certification for a pet bird arriving from Canada under 9 CFR 93.101(c)(1);
93.104(a) excepts exactly that route. The two countries’ rules interlock: because
Washington does not ask, Ottawa does not require.

Be precise about what that does and does not switch off. The certificate falls
away. Paragraph 69(1)(a) — evidence that the bird meets the importing country’s
sanitary requirements — and paragraph 69(1)(c) — the transport information —
are not covered by that carve-out. And it is a United States carve-out only.
Flying your bird to the UK, the EU, Australia or anywhere else, the certificate and the
official export stamp apply in full.

What it costs when a certificate is issued. The
CFIA Fees Notice, Part 11, item 23(4) covers
certifying poultry for export to the United States: ratites and, separately, chickens,
turkeys, game birds, ducks and geese are $30.79, and paragraph (c) — “poultry or
hatching eggs other than those referred to in paragraphs (a) and (b)”, which is where a
parrot sits — is $24.64 per certificate. For a destination other than
the United States, item 23(6)(d) puts it at $30.79 per certificate, or
$615.92 if the importing country requires testing by an Agency laboratory. Read the second
column on that page: the header says “Fee as of March 31, 2026”, and CFIA
re-indexes its fees every 31 March against the Consumer Price Index.

None of the above tells you what your destination country demands, which is the
part that varies most and changes most often. It tells you what Canada asks of you on the way
out.

Layer 3 — CITES, and the question of repeat crossings

If your bird’s species is listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), crossing the border is, legally, an “import” and an “export” of a CITES specimen every time — even for a weekend trip. CITES is administered internationally through cites.org and, in Canada, through Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC).

Why “it’s just a day trip” is still an import every single time

There is no exemption in CITES for short trips or repeat travel with the same bird — each crossing is treated as its own transaction unless you hold a specific instrument that covers repeated movement of a personally owned specimen. Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, whether an ECCC Certificate of Ownership or equivalent instrument exists for repeat cross-border travel with a personally owned CITES-listed bird, and how to apply for it. 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.. If you cross the border often with the same bird — a snowbird season, regular family visits — this is worth resolving before your first trip, not your fifth.

The US “pet passport” — and whether it’s available to Canadians

Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, whether a USFWS pet-bird travel document such as Form 3-200-64 exists, what it covers, and whether it is available to a Canadian resident rather than only a U.S. resident or citizen. 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.. Don’t build a travel plan around a document you haven’t confirmed you’re eligible for.

Layer 4 — the permit nobody tells you about: the Wild Bird Conservation Act

This is the layer that trips up owners of larger parrots specifically, and it has nothing to do with CITES status or with whether USDA has any health concern about your bird at all. The Wild Bird Conservation Act (WBCA) restricts which exotic bird species can be imported into the United States, independent of any other permit you hold.

The approved list — budgies and cockatiels sail through, most large parrots don’t

Under 50 CFR Part 15, §15.33, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service maintains an “approved list” of captive-bred exotic bird species whose import into the United States isn’t prohibited under the WBCA. If your species is on that list, the WBCA import prohibition simply doesn’t apply to it. If it isn’t, the prohibition does apply — regardless of CITES status, which is a completely separate regime.

Species on the approved list include the budgerigar, cockatiel, Indian ringneck, peach-faced and masked lovebirds, the Jendaya conure, lineolated parakeet, Pacific parrotlet, several Neophema species (Bourke’s, blue-winged, elegant, turquoise, scarlet-chested), the rosellas, princess/regent/superb parrots, red-rumped and mulga parakeets, the Alexandrine parakeet (specific colour forms only), red-capped parrot, and scaly-breasted lorikeet.

Species that do not appear on the approved list — meaning the WBCA prohibition applies and a permit route is needed — include African greys, every macaw, every amazon, every cockatoo, eclectus, caiques, senegals, pionus, and every conure except the Jendaya. If you own one of these, this is the single most important fact in this whole article: your bird cannot simply be driven or flown across on a health certificate. It needs a WBCA permit route regardless of which side of the border it’s leaving from.

The two-birds-per-year cap and the one-year-residence requirement

For species not on the approved list, 50 CFR §15.25 provides a personal-pet permit route — but it comes with hard limits. No individual may import more than two exotic birds as personal pets in any year; this cap is stated three times in the regulation, as an application rule, an issuance criterion, and a standing permit condition. Once imported under this permit, the bird cannot be sold in the United States — that’s a condition attached to every personal-pet permit.

The eligibility test is not U.S. citizenship or U.S. residency. It’s documented continuous residence outside the United States for at least one year, stated twice in the regulation — once as an application requirement, once as an issuance criterion. On the face of the rule, a Canadian who has lived in Canada for a year or more meets this. Evidence of the bird’s origin is also specified: a copy of any CITES permit under which the bird was exported or re-exported, or — where none exists — a sales receipt or signed statement from the seller (name, address, date of sale, species, and identifying information), or a signed breeder’s certificate with the breeder’s name, address, date of sale or transfer, species and hatch date.

Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, current processing time for a 50 CFR §15.25 personal-pet import permit, and whether it must be applied for before or can be applied for at the same time as travel booking. 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.. Given the eligibility criteria alone, this permit is not something you can start the week before a flight.

Layer 5 — USFWS: declarations and port clearance

Separate from the WBCA permit itself, most wildlife imports into the U.S. — which includes a CITES-listed bird — require a wildlife declaration to USFWS, and only certain ports of entry are staffed to process one. Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, the current USFWS wildlife declaration form (e.g. Form 3-177) and electronic filing system, and which ports are designated to clear a CITES-listed bird. 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.. This is a separate check from the CBP officer at the booth, so confirm which specific crossing or airport you’re using can actually process this before you commit to a route.

Where you are actually allowed to bring a pet bird in

There are two port lists in play, and which one governs you depends on where your bird is
from — not where you are driving from.
9 CFR 93.105(b) makes the split explicit. Pet
birds from most of the world may enter only at the “special ports for pet
birds” in 93.102(a): Los Angeles and San Ysidro, California; Miami, Florida; New York,
New York; Baudette, Minnesota; and Hidalgo, Texas. But the same paragraph then says that
“pet birds of Canadian origin… shall be subject to veterinary inspection at any
of the ports of entry listed in 93.102 and 93.203.”

That second list is the one that matters to you, and it is much friendlier.
9 CFR 93.203(b), headed Canadian border
ports, designates these land crossings as having the inspection facilities needed for
entry from Canada:

• New York — Alexandria Bay, Buffalo, Champlain
• Michigan — Detroit, Port Huron, Sault Ste. Marie
• Vermont — Derby Line, Highgate Springs
• Maine — Houlton, Jackman · Idaho — Eastport
• Minnesota — Baudette · North Dakota — Dunseith, Pembina, Portal
• Montana — Opheim, Raymond, Sweetgrass · Washington — Oroville, Sumas

Buffalo and Detroit are both on that list, which are the two crossings most Toronto owners
would think of first. 93.203(a) names Los Angeles, Miami and Newburgh, New York as the air and
ocean quarantine stations, and 93.203(e) lets the Administrator designate other ports in
special cases.

The CITES layer sits on top of this and is stricter.
50 CFR 14.16(a) lists northern Customs ports for
wildlife of Canadian or US origin — Buffalo-Niagara Falls and Champlain, Detroit, Port
Huron and Sault Sainte Marie, Derby Line and Highgate Springs, Cleveland — but it opens
“Except for wildlife requiring a permit pursuant to part 16, 17, 18, 21, or 23”,
and part 23 is CITES. A CITES-listed bird is carved out of that route by the
text. The seventeen designated wildlife ports in 50 CFR 14.12 are all major airports
and seaports, none of them a Canadian land crossing. So an owner-declaration bird and a
CITES-listed bird can face different answers at the same booth.

And the cross-references genuinely do not line up.
9 CFR 93.101(c)(1) says a pet bird from Canada may enter “at any port of entry
designated in 93.103 or 93.203” — but 93.103 is the section on import permits and
quarantine reservation fees, not ports. And 50 CFR 14.17 points pet birds at
“any port designated under… 9 CFR part 92”, while part 92 today
contains disease-risk region classification and no port designations at all. We are not going
to pretend that is tidy. Confirm your intended port in writing with APHIS before you drive.

Whether a USDA veterinarian is available where you are crossing

Being on the list means the port is designated as having the necessary inspection
facilities. It does not guarantee a veterinarian is on duty at the hour you arrive, and
9 CFR 93.105 makes port-of-entry veterinary inspection part of the route. Confirm
staffing and whether an appointment is needed for the specific crossing and time you intend to
use.

Avian influenza — why your route matters more than your address

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) has led both Canadian and U.S. agriculture agencies to designate restricted zones around active outbreaks from time to time, affecting movement of birds through or from those areas. These zones move as outbreaks are detected and resolved, so a route that was fine last month may not be this month.

What a control zone can do to your trip

Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, whether an active avian-influenza primary control zone or restricted zone anywhere along your specific driving or flying route currently restricts personal pet bird movement, and what that restriction requires. Please confirm with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency at 1-800-442-2342 before you rely on it for your own bird.. Check this close to your travel date, not when you first start planning — zone boundaries change on short notice.

Booking the inspection

If your crossing requires a USDA veterinary inspection, or your flight requires one at a designated port, that inspection generally has to be booked ahead — arriving unannounced with a live bird is not something most ports can accommodate on the spot. Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, the current minimum advance-booking window for a USDA port veterinarian inspection, and whether after-hours or weekend arrival carries an additional fee. Please confirm with USDA APHIS Veterinary Services at aphis.usda.gov/pet-travel before you rely on it for your own bird.. Build this lead time into your travel plan before you book a flight or set a driving date.

Border day: what to hand each officer, in what order

The paperwork above is issued by different agencies, but at the crossing itself it needs to come together as one packet. As a starting checklist, expect to need:

• The signed statement the US route turns on: that the bird has been in your possession for at least 90 days and has not been in contact with poultry or other birds. That is what 9 CFR 93.101(c)(1) asks for — not a US health certificate
• For the Canadian export side: no CFIA export certificate is required for the US, because s.69(1.1) of the Health of Animals Regulations disapplies it where the destination country does not request certification — and the US does not on this route. Going anywhere else, you need the certificate with the official export stamp
• An APHIS import permit only if you fall OUTSIDE the 93.101(c)(1) route — on that route 93.103(a)(1) does not require one. Where it is required the forms are VS 17-20, or VS 17-128 for ratites
• A CITES export permit if your species is CITES-listed, plus any USFWS wildlife declaration your port requires
• A WBCA permit or approved-list confirmation for species not on the §15.33 list
• Proof of the bird’s origin (breeder certificate, sales receipt, or CITES documentation) if your permit route requires it

Hand the CBP officer your full packet up front rather than volunteering documents one at a time — it’s the fastest way to establish that you’ve done the paperwork correctly, and it gives the officer everything needed to wave you through to a USDA vet or USFWS check if one is required at that port.

Coming home — the CBSA declaration and the 90-day possession rule

Bringing your bird back to Canada afterward is governed by a completely different, and better-defined, rule. Under section 13 of the Import Reference Document — incorporated by reference into the Health of Animals Regulations, meaning it is primary law rather than guidance — a personally owned pet parrot or songbird arriving from the United States needs no veterinary health certificate. It needs only a declaration made by the owner to a CBSA officer at the border.

That declaration must state, for each bird: that it’s the owner’s personal pet and not for sale; that it hasn’t been in contact with other birds; and that it has been in the owner’s personal possession in Canada or the United States for the 90 days immediately preceding the date of re-entry. The importer must be the bird’s owner and must personally accompany it — a family member can’t bring the bird back on your behalf under this rule. There’s also a limit that rarely gets published anywhere: no one in the importer’s household can have imported a bird under this same section in the 90 days before the date of entry, which effectively caps this route at one pet bird per household per 90 days.

Section 13 imposes no quarantine on entry — but that’s a deliberate feature of the document, not something you should assume applies to your situation without reading the source. The same document specifies quarantine explicitly where it applies elsewhere (30 days for swine, quarantine on arrival for feeder calves), so its silence for parrots and songbirds under section 13 is meaningful. If an inspector has reason to believe your bird isn’t in good health, they can refuse admission — or, if it’s already been admitted, order it removed from Canada or destroyed. For the full walkthrough of this side of the trip, see our guide to bringing a pet bird into Canada.

The full cost, itemised

Item	Who charges it	Amount
CFIA-endorsed export health certificate	Accredited vet + CFIA	Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, current cost of an accredited-vet exam plus CFIA endorsement fee. Please confirm with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency at 1-800-442-2342 before you rely on it for your own bird.
USDA import permit (if required)	USDA APHIS	Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, current APHIS bird import permit fee. Please confirm with USDA APHIS Veterinary Services at aphis.usda.gov/pet-travel before you rely on it for your own bird.
CITES export permit (if listed species)	ECCC	Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, current ECCC CITES export permit fee. 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.
WBCA personal-pet permit (if not on §15.33 list)	USFWS	Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, current 50 CFR §15.25 permit application fee. 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.
USDA port veterinarian inspection (if required)	USDA APHIS	Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, current inspection fee, including any after-hours surcharge. Please confirm with USDA APHIS Veterinary Services at aphis.usda.gov/pet-travel before you rely on it for your own bird.

If any of these permits is going to take longer to process than your travel date allows — which is common with the WBCA route given the residency and evidence requirements above — your bird may need somewhere stable to stay in the meantime rather than travelling on a rushed or incomplete application. Our guide to boarding during a move covers that decision in more detail, and our complete guide to moving abroad with a pet bird covers the wider relocation picture beyond just the U.S. corridor.

Frequently asked questions

Is driving genuinely easier than flying?

Not automatically. Driving can mean a simpler physical process at the border, but only if the specific crossing you’re using has a USDA veterinarian available and can process any USFWS or WBCA paperwork your species needs. A land crossing with none of that on site can be slower than a designated airport.

Can I use any land border crossing?

Not necessarily — some crossings aren’t equipped to inspect a live bird or process wildlife paperwork. Confirm the specific crossing can handle your species and documents before you plan your route.

My bird is a budgie — do I still need all of this?

Budgies and cockatiels are both on the WBCA §15.33 approved list, so that specific prohibition doesn’t apply to them. You’ll still need the CFIA-endorsed health certificate and any CITES paperwork your species requires, so confirm those layers even for an approved-list species.

My bird is an African grey — what changes?

African greys aren’t on the WBCA approved list, so the import prohibition applies and you’ll need a permit route such as the one under 50 CFR §15.25, subject to its two-birds-per-year cap and one-year-residence-outside-the-US requirement. Start this well ahead of any travel date.

Does BST handle any of this paperwork for me?

No. Bird Sitting Toronto doesn’t file permits, complete applications, liaise with any government agency, or act as a customs broker, and nothing on this page is immigration or legal advice — it’s information only. What BST does offer is boarding, if your bird needs somewhere to stay while your paperwork is in process.

What happens if I get to the border without the right paperwork?

An officer who isn’t satisfied can refuse entry for the bird, and in some circumstances a bird already admitted can be ordered removed or destroyed. This is exactly why every unconfirmed number in this article is flagged rather than guessed — getting it wrong has real consequences for your bird.

Do the rules differ for a weekend trip versus moving permanently?

The federal permit and health-certificate requirements described here apply to a short visit exactly as they do to a permanent move — there’s no “day trip” exemption. What changes for a permanent move is usually the CITES and WBCA picture around repeat or one-way travel, which is worth confirming separately with ECCC and USFWS.

If your bird’s permit is going to take longer to process than your departure date allows, get a boarding quote so your bird has a stable place to stay while you sort out the paperwork.

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
• Can I Fly Inside Canada With My Parrot? Domestic Rules by Carrier
• Is Flying Safe for a Parrot? What Canadian Law Actually Requires
• Bringing a Pet Bird to Canada From Outside the US: Why You Need a Permit

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.

Corrections

Where we have found a material error on this page — a wrong fee, day-count, phone number or country status — we fix it and record the fix here rather than editing quietly.

• 27 July 2026 — We had listed 1-800-358-2104 as the US Fish & Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement number. That number is widely repeated online but does not appear anywhere on the current fws.gov, so we have replaced it with the contact route the agency does publish – the ePermits portal and its agency contact centre. Every other number in that section was re-checked against the agency’s own website the same day, and CBSA’s border information line has been added.
• 27 July 2026 — Our driving-versus-flying table said a CFIA-endorsed health certificate was “required” for a pet bird entering the US. Reading the regulation directly, that is wrong for this route: 9 CFR 93.104(a) requires a veterinary certificate for pet birds “except as provided for in 93.101(b) and (c)”, and a pet bird from Canada enters under 93.101(c)(1), which asks instead for port-of-entry veterinary inspection and a signed 90-day possession and no-contact statement from the owner. The row now says so. We have also replaced the section that could only say we had not confirmed which crossings work: 9 CFR 93.102 names the designated pet-bird ports, and no Ontario-adjacent land crossing is among them.
• 27 July 2026 — We got this wrong earlier today and are correcting it the same day. This page said no Ontario-adjacent land crossing appeared on the US pet-bird port lists, and named Buffalo and Detroit as not available. That read 9 CFR 93.102 on its own. 9 CFR 93.105(b) says pet birds of Canadian origin may be inspected at any port listed in 93.102 or 93.203, and 93.203(b) — “Canadian border ports” — lists Buffalo, Alexandria Bay and Champlain, Detroit, Port Huron and Sault Ste. Marie, among others. Buffalo and Detroit are available to a Canadian-origin pet bird. The section has been rewritten. If you read this page earlier today and concluded you had to drive to Minnesota, you do not.
• 27 July 2026 — This page previously flagged as unconfirmed whether a USDA import permit is required for a personal pet bird entering by land from Canada, and told readers to expect a CFIA-endorsed health certificate. Reading 9 CFR part 93 directly answers it: a pet bird from Canada imported by its owner under 93.101(c)(1) needs no US import permit (93.103(a)(1)), no US health certificate (93.104(a)) and no 30-day quarantine (93.106(a)) — the same exception is written into all three. What it does need is port-of-entry veterinary inspection and a signed 90-day possession and no-contact statement. The section has been rewritten around what the regulation actually says.
• 27 July 2026 — This page said a CFIA-endorsed export health certificate is “typically” needed to take a bird out of Canada, and flagged the details as unverified. The Health of Animals Regulations answer it. A bird in captivity is “poultry” under those Regulations, so section 69 governs — but section 69(1.1) disapplies the certificate for animals destined for the United States where certification is not requested by the United States, and 9 CFR 93.104(a) shows it is not requested on the pet-bird route from Canada. So for the US there is no CFIA export certificate; for any other destination there is, with the official export stamp, at $24.64 or $30.79 per certificate depending on destination. The section has been rewritten.