Traveling Abroad and Back Home
with your Pet Bird

(May 30, 1997 Press Release from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

If you plan to take your pet bird with you on foreign travel or you have purchased a pet bird while traveling or living abroad, you will need to obtain specific permits before returning home. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in accordance with the terms of the Wild Bird Conservation Act of 1992 (WBCA), issued regulations that provide for permits to allow foreign travel with your pet bird. Domestic travel and sales are not affected.

Enacted by the U.S. Congress, the WBCA is designed to protect exotic wild birds subject to trade. The Act focuses on bird species listed in the Appendices to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Since most exotic pet birds are species listed under CITES, most are affected by the Act.

If you are planning to take your pet bird with you on foreign travel, and plan to bring it back home, you need to obtain a CITES export permit from the Service's Office of Management Authority. This permit allows you to bring your pet bird back into the United States without a separate WBCA import permit. However, if your bird is listed in Appendix I of CITES, you will need to obtain both CITES import and export permits before returning to the United States. When you depart the United States, you must have the export permit validated by the Service and you must keep a copy of the validated permit to show upon returning home. There are no restrictions on the length of time you may travel aboard with your pet or the number of pet birds you may take with you while traveling. You should check with the country you are planning to visit to secure any permits that country requires for import and export.

If you are planning to purchase or obtain a bird while you are out of the country and plan on bringing it back into the United States, you must observe other permit requirements. You must obtain an import permit from the Office of Management Authority before bringing a pet bird into the United States. Such a permit can only be granted for the import of a maximum of two birds and to an individual who has lived outside the country continuously for at least one year.

In addition, you must secure all necessary permits before shipping your bird back home. The Service cannot issue after- the-fact permits so it is too late once your bird has been imported and placed in U.S. quarantine. You should also check with your state conservation agency to see if it requires any additional permit, since some states regulate the import of birds, even for personal use.

Permit applications and any additional information you may need are available from the Service's Office of Management Authority. By telephone: 1-800-358-2104; by fax: 703-358-2281.

 

Legislation Page