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

How Many Birds Counts As A Personal Import Rather Than A Commercial One

Worth checking: 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 — we could not confirm this from an official source. Ask USDA APHIS Veterinary Services before you rely on it. 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. Worth checking: 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 — we could not confirm this from an official source. Ask USDA APHIS Veterinary Services before you rely on it. 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.

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.

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.

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. Worth checking: 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 — we could not confirm this from an official source. Ask Environment and Climate Change Canada (1-855-869-8670 or cites@ec.gc.ca) before you rely on it. 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

Worth checking: 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 — we could not confirm this from an official source. Ask the US Fish and Wildlife Service before you rely on it. Don’t build a travel plan around a document you haven’t confirmed you’re eligible for.

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.

Worth checking: 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 — we could not confirm this from an official source. Ask the US Fish and Wildlife Service before you rely on it. Given the eligibility criteria alone, this permit is not something you can start the week before a flight.

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.

What A Control Zone Can Do To Your Trip

Worth checking: 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 — we could not confirm this from an official source. Ask the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (1-800-442-2342) before you rely on it. Check this close to your travel date, not when you first start planning — zone boundaries change on short notice.

• 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.

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.

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.

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

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.

• 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.