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Bringing a bird from the United States to New Zealand

No — pet birds cannot be brought into New Zealand at all, from the United States or from anywhere else. New Zealand Customs lists live birds under the animals you can't bring in, and MPI — the biosecurity authority — states it directly: 'No imports of live birds are allowed.' There is no import health standard (IHS) for pet birds, and without an IHS there is no permit, certificate or quarantine pathway a pet owner can use. This is a species-level ban, not a paperwork problem.

Bird rules move fast. Avian influenza (HPAI) restriction lists change week to week, and a listing can close a route with little notice. Seven days before you travel, re-check that your origin is still clear — the checklist below includes that step.

Pet-bird entry

Live birds are on Customs' can't-bring-in list

No IHS

Import health standard

No standard exists, so no permit pathway exists

3 species

Only other pets allowed

Chinchillas from Great Britain; rabbits and guinea pigs from Australia

Any country

Origin does not matter

The ban applies to US birds and every other origin alike

Step-by-step checklist

Requirements — Bird · the United States → New Zealand
Step	What to do	When
Accept there is no paperwork fix	No health certificate, CITES permit, import permit or pet-shipper service makes a pet bird eligible. MPI's system only admits an animal when an import health standard exists for it, and MPI publishes no IHS for live pet birds — instead its pet guidance carries the heading 'Birds cannot be brought to New Zealand' and the sentence 'No imports of live birds are allowed.'	Before anything else
Why New Zealand bans live birds	MPI gives the reason on the same page: New Zealand has a unique population of rare and endangered birds and is free of a number of major bird and poultry diseases, and it intends to keep that status. Protecting it is why the pet list is so short — other than cats and dogs, only three species can be imported as pets at all (chinchillas from Great Britain, rabbits from Australia, guinea pigs from Australia), plus fish under a separate aquatic process.	Background
The Customs list says the same thing	New Zealand Customs' page for people moving to New Zealand lists the prohibited animals and pets — 'You can't bring in: live birds' — alongside ferrets, guinea pigs (except from Australia), mice and rats (except laboratory animals) and snakes and other reptiles (except for zoos). Two authorities, two lists, one answer for birds.	Second official source
Are there any exceptions a pet owner can use?	None that MPI or Customs publish for household pets. The exceptions visible in the official lists are institutional, not personal: laboratory mice and rats, and some reptiles for zoos. MPI's live-animal import system can consider institutional imports case by case under their own standards, but that is not a pet route, cannot be used to import your household bird, and is outside the scope of this site. A CITES permit, where a parrot species needs one for other countries, controls trade in endangered species — it does not override New Zealand biosecurity and creates no right of entry.	Exceptions check
Do not ship the bird and hope	A live bird presented at the New Zealand border is a prohibited animal: it will not be cleared as a pet, and you will have put the bird through a long cargo flight for nothing. Arrange the bird's future before you move — rehoming with family or a trusted keeper in the US is the standard outcome on this route — rather than testing the ban on arrival.	Before you book anything
If you still want a bird after you arrive	Pet birds are widely kept in New Zealand, but they are sourced from birds already in the country — New Zealand's cage-bird population is domestic-bred precisely because live imports are not allowed. Buying from a New Zealand breeder after you settle is lawful; importing your US bird is not.	Alternative

Your preparation timeline

1Now — Accept the answer is no — there is no application to file and no queue to join for a pet-bird import permit
2Before you move — Rehome your bird in the US, or arrange long-term care with someone you trust; do not book the bird onto your flight
3Travel day — Your bird does not travel. Cats and dogs on the same move follow their own MPI procedure — the bird ban does not affect them
4After you settle — If you want a bird in New Zealand, buy one from domestic stock already in the country
5Ongoing — MPI would have to complete a risk analysis and issue an import health standard before this could ever change — check MPI's pets pages before assuming any change

The mistake that causes trouble on this route: Believing the ban is really about quarantine capacity or missing documents. Owners of parrots — expensive, long-lived, CITES-listed birds — often assume a permit must exist somewhere. It does not: the prohibition is stated identically by Customs (border) and MPI (biosecurity), and MPI's own explanation is disease freedom for its unique native bird population, not paperwork. Money spent on certificates 'for New Zealand' is wasted.

Costs you can plan for

There are no New Zealand government import fees to budget on this route, because there is no import to apply for. Your costs are the human ones: rehoming or long-term boarding arrangements for your bird in the US, and — if you replace the bird after moving — the ordinary domestic purchase price in New Zealand. Be wary of any service charging to 'arrange' a pet-bird import into New Zealand: neither MPI nor Customs describes a service that can lawfully do it.

✈️ Government rules are only half the trip. Airlines set their own pet carriage rules (crate size, breed limits, seasonal embargoes). Re-confirm carriage with your airline after you meet the rules above.

Questions people ask about this route

Does it matter that my bird is a common budgie or cockatiel, not a rare parrot?

No. The prohibition covers live birds as a class — Customs lists 'live birds' without species exceptions, and MPI's 'no imports of live birds are allowed' is equally general. Common, captive-bred, healthy and microchipped makes no difference.

Can my bird come if it quarantines, like my dog does?

No. Quarantine in New Zealand exists inside the import health standards for cats and dogs (and the three other permitted pet species). For birds there is no standard, so there is no quarantine pathway to book into — quarantine is a condition of an import route, not a substitute for one.

What about zoos or commercial importers — could they bring my bird in?

Not as a way to move your pet. The only exceptions in the official pet lists are institutional (laboratory animals; some reptiles for zoos), and MPI handles any institutional live-animal imports separately from the pet system. This site covers household pets; no published MPI or Customs route lets an institution import a bird and hand it to you as a pet.

Could the rules change? I read MPI studied parrot imports.

MPI has published import risk analysis work on live psittacine birds, but a risk analysis is not an import health standard, and MPI's current pet guidance still says no imports of live birds are allowed. Until an IHS is actually issued, the answer stays no — do not plan a move around a possible future standard.

Can I bring my bird's eggs, or a bird I buy in Australia, instead?

Neither helps. Hatching eggs are a different commodity with their own MPI standards and are not a pet-bird route, and the ban is on live birds from any country — an Australian-bought bird is as prohibited as a US one.

Related guides

✓ Last verified: 2026-11-12

Official sources for this page

We check each rule against the exporting country's official page and the destination country's official page. If the two disagree, we show the disagreement instead of guessing.

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