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Where is the cockatoo legal?

Cacatuidae. Restricted in 4 of the 49 jurisdictions checked. Every entry quotes the rule it comes from.

Alabama: no restriction found for cockatooAlaska: no restriction found for cockatooArizona: no restriction found for cockatooArkansas: no restriction found for cockatooCalifornia: no restriction found for cockatooColorado: no restriction found for cockatooConnecticut: no restriction found for cockatooDelaware: no restriction found for cockatooFlorida: no restriction found for cockatooGeorgia: no restriction found for cockatooHawaii: conditions apply for cockatooIdaho: no restriction found for cockatooIllinois: no restriction found for cockatooIndiana: no restriction found for cockatooIowa: no restriction found for cockatooKansas: no restriction found for cockatooKentucky: no restriction found for cockatooLouisiana: no restriction found for cockatooMaine: permit required for cockatooMaryland: no restriction found for cockatooMassachusetts: no restriction found for cockatooMichigan: not checked yet for cockatooMinnesota: no restriction found for cockatooMississippi: no restriction found for cockatooMissouri: no restriction found for cockatooMontana: no restriction found for cockatooNebraska: no restriction found for cockatooNevada: no restriction found for cockatooNew Hampshire: no restriction found for cockatooNew Jersey: no restriction found for cockatooNew Mexico: unclear for cockatooNew York: no restriction found for cockatooNorth Carolina: no restriction found for cockatooNorth Dakota: no restriction found for cockatooOhio: no restriction found for cockatooOklahoma: no restriction found for cockatooOregon: not checked yet for cockatooPennsylvania: no restriction found for cockatooRhode Island: no restriction found for cockatooSouth Carolina: no restriction found for cockatooSouth Dakota: no restriction found for cockatooTennessee: no restriction found for cockatooTexas: no restriction found for cockatooUtah: no restriction found for cockatooVermont: unclear for cockatooVirginia: no restriction found for cockatooWashington: no restriction found for cockatooWest Virginia: no restriction found for cockatooWisconsin: no restriction found for cockatooWyoming: no restriction found for cockatooDistrict of Columbia: no restriction found for cockatoo

Select a state for the rule behind its colour. Alaska, Hawaii and the District of Columbia are drawn out of position so they can be clicked. 49 of 51 states and DC have been read for this animal, so the 2 dotted ones are a gap in our research rather than a finding of no rule.

What the colours mean

  • BannedNo legal way to keep one, and no permit to apply for.
  • Permit required (1)Legal, but you need a permit or licence before the animal arrives.
  • Conditions apply (1)Legal without a permit only if a stated condition is met, such as a generation, a size or an indoor-only rule.
  • Unclear (2)The rule genuinely does not resolve for this animal. Ask the agency before relying on it.
  • No restriction found (45)This jurisdiction was read for this animal and nothing in it restricts one.
  • Not checked yet (2)We have not read this jurisdiction for this animal. It is not a clean bill of health, it is a gap.

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Every restriction on the cockatoo

4 of the 49 jurisdictions checked restrict this animal in some way. The rest had no rule we could find.

Maine

Permit requiredUnrestricted Species list, Psittaciformes
All Species in Order Psittaciformes (Parrots) Except for: Myiopsitta monachus; Cyanoliseus patagonus; Enicognathus leptorhynchus; Enicognathus ferrugineus; Family Strigopidae *Except if listed on: IUCN Red List (Endangered, Critically Endangered, or Extinct in the Wild) OR CITES Appendix I

Maine clears the whole parrot order but then strips back out anything on CITES Appendix I or the IUCN's Endangered/Critically Endangered tiers. That carve-out catches several of the most commonly kept pet cockatoos: the Moluccan and yellow-crested cockatoos are CITES Appendix I, and the umbrella cockatoo is IUCN Endangered even though it's only CITES Appendix II. Smaller, more secure species like the cockatiel or galah would still clear the list; the larger, more iconic cockatoos generally need Maine's captivity permit instead.

How this rule works: Species needing no importation, exhibition or possession permit.

Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, Unrestricted Species List →

Hawaii

Conditions apply§ 4-71-6.5, List of Conditionally Approved Animals
White cockatoos (Umbrella, Moluccan, Sulphur-crested, Little Corella, etc.)

Cockatoos are named on Hawaii's conditionally approved list, alongside the galah, gang-gang, black cockatoos, and palm cockatoo, so keeping one is possible but requires an import permit, pre-departure quarantine, health certification, and permanent ID before the bird ever lands in the state.

How this rule works: The list that matters most for pet keepers and the one almost never quoted. Conditional approval means importation and possession are allowed subject to the conditions the Board of Agriculture sets, unlike the restricted list, which is research and exhibition only.

Hawaii Administrative Rules, List of Conditionally Approved Animals (Hawaii Department of Agriculture official PDF) →

New Mexico

Unclear

New Mexico sorts exotic wildlife into Groups I through IV by danger level; cockatoos weren't named in the regulation text located, and an unlisted species defaults to Group IV, whose actual requirements weren't confirmed in this research.

How this rule works: Four groups. Group I is semi-domesticated and needs no importation permit; Group IV is 'dangerous, invasive, undesirable, state or federal listed threatened, endangered, a furbearer or any other species of concern' and is barred to the general public, allowed only for scientific study, restoration, zoological display, temporary events, service animals or qualified experts. The operative default: 'Any species of live non-domesticated animal not currently on the species importation list will be designated group IV until such time as another determination is made by the director.' The group assignments themselves live in a separate Director's Species Importation List, roughly 27 pages, which I could not obtain.

N.M. Admin. Code 19.35.7, Importation of Live Non-domesticated Animals, Birds and Fish →

Vermont

Unclear10 V.S.A. App. § 18

Vermont requires an Importation & Possession Permit for any wild animal not on its Unrestricted Wild Animals List. This research could not confirm whether cockatoos appear on that list.

How this rule works: Vermont Legislature's official text requiring an Importation and Possession Permit for any wild animal not on the Commissioner's Unrestricted Wild Animals List.

10 V.S.A. App. § 18 →

For the full write-up, including the states that get reported wrongly, read the cockatoo legal guide.

Past the legal question? See the cockatoo profile.

How to read this

Two of the shades mean very different things and are worth telling apart. A flat grey state was read for this animal and nothing in it restricts one. A dotted state has not been read for this animal at all. Coverage runs from two jurisdictions to fifty-one depending on the species, so on a less-researched animal most of the map is a gap in our work rather than a finding, and it should not be taken as permission.

Even a flat grey is not a guarantee. It means no restriction was found in the specific body of law checked for that state, which is recorded alongside each jurisdiction. Cities and counties regularly ban animals their state allows, and several states say so in their own rules.

Hatched grey means the rule genuinely does not resolve. Usually a definition arguably reaches the animal without naming it, and the honest answer is to ask the agency rather than to guess. Those entries are marked unclear on purpose rather than being rounded to a yes or a no.

Every entry links to the regulation it came from. None of this is legal advice, laws change without much notice, and the agency that issues the permit is always the last word. For the federal layer and how state schemes are structured, see the exotic pet legal hub.