Is It Legal to Own a Cockatoo? State-by-State Guide
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Cockatoos are legal to own across nearly every US state, but "is a cockatoo legal here" turns out to be the wrong question in at least one place. Maine's parrot rules don't treat cockatoos as one group; they single out specific species by conservation status, which means the answer can depend on which cockatoo you're asking about.
Where Cockatoos Stand
| Where | Status | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Maine (Moluccan, yellow-crested, umbrella) | Permit required | Maine clears the whole parrot order except any species on CITES Appendix I or the IUCN's Endangered/Critically Endangered tiers; that carve-out catches these three species by name |
| Maine (cockatiel, galah, other smaller species) | Legal, no permit | Not on CITES Appendix I or the IUCN's most endangered tiers, so these clear Maine's blanket parrot exemption with no permit |
| Arkansas | Legal | Five cockatoo species, including the CITES Appendix I Moluccan and yellow-crested, are named directly on the state's unrestricted list with no conservation-status carve-out |
| Hawaii | Conditional, import process | Named on the state's conditionally approved animal list; keeping one requires an import permit, pre-departure quarantine, health certification, and permanent ID before the bird can enter |
| California | Legal | The only parrot on the state's restricted species list is the monk parakeet; every cockatoo species is outside it |
| Virginia | Legal | Virginia's potentially-dangerous-species list names only the monk parakeet; Cacatua is absent from it |
| New Jersey | Permit required | New Jersey exempts nine birds by name and no cockatoo is among them, so 7:25-4.5 requires a permit for the rest; the potentially-dangerous table is a separate question and being off it only means a bird is not banned |
| Massachusetts | Depends on the species | Parrots are exempt as a family, but the exemption is expressly subject to a bar on listing any IUCN-listed species, so the umbrella and Moluccan need a permit and the Major Mitchell's does not |
| Vermont | Banned | Falls through all three lists, and a species on none of them is treated as restricted. The Domestic list clears psittacines one binomial at a time and Cacatua is not among them |
| Everywhere else | Generally legal | No state-level restriction found; ordinary captive-bred psittacine pet |
Massachusetts Answers It Species by Species
Massachusetts is the one state we checked where the answer changes with the cockatoo. It runs a closed exemption list at 321 CMR 9.01, and parrots are on it as a family, "Psittacidae (parrots and their allies)". That looks like the end of it, and it is not, because the bird section opens by removing three groups from whatever follows, the first of which is any species "categorically non-exempt pursuant to 321 CMR 9.01(3)". Clause (3)(b) then bars exempting anything listed in the IUCN Red Book.
That clause splits the pet cockatoos down the middle. The umbrella cockatoo and the Moluccan are both assessed as endangered and the yellow-crested group includes critically endangered species, so all of them sit outside the family exemption and in a permit tier that MassWildlife says it does not issue for pets. The Major Mitchell's and the long-billed corella are least concern and clear it. Goffin's cockatoo is near threatened, which is the one place the language runs out: the statute bars listing an animal "in any category" of the IUCN Red Data Books and the agency paraphrases that as "any rarity category", and neither says whether near threatened is one.
The practical version is short. In Massachusetts, look up your species before you look up the parrot rule.
Cockatoos Are an Easy Yes in Most States
In the great majority of states, a pet cockatoo doesn't raise any legal questions at all. Idaho and Colorado clear pet birds as a category outright, Colorado by putting "all Psitticine birds" on its unregulated wildlife list, and Oklahoma's noncontrolled exotic-species exemption names cockatoos specifically, alongside cockatiels, macaws, and canaries. Others, including New Hampshire and Montana, name the order Psittaciformes or the family Psittacidae directly as unregulated. Where a state does restrict a parrot species, it's almost always the same one: the monk parakeet, named specifically in California, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Virginia, among others, and prohibited outright in Colorado on a separate list that overrides the parrot exemption, while every other parrot, cockatoos included, is left alone. New Jersey is the exception that proves how the reading goes wrong, and it gets its own section below.
New Jersey Restricts by Silence, Not by Listing
New Jersey looks like an easy yes and is not, and the reason is worth understanding because the same trap is set in every closed-list state. Its potentially-dangerous-species table at N.J.A.C. 7:25-4.8(a) does name three parrots by genus, the ring-necked parakeets, the monk parakeets, and the Patagonian conure, and no cockatoo appears on it. That is a real fact and it answers the wrong question. Being off the dangerous table only means a bird is not banned.
What decides whether a bird is free is the exempt list at 7:25-4.4, and it is closed. Nine birds are on it: the budgerigar, cockatiel, peafowl, rock dove, canary, house sparrow, European starling, zebra finch, and society finch. Every other bird falls to 7:25-4.5, which requires a permit for "any other exotic mammals, birds, reptiles, or amphibians, or nongame species not specifically exempted" by that list. A cockatoo is not on the nine, so it needs an individual hobby permit. So does a macaw, and so does the African grey, which the state names on its permit-required list outright.
There is a second layer for the same species Massachusetts and Maine catch. New Jersey Fish and Wildlife says in its restricted-species notice that it classifies any animal as endangered when it appears on "any relevant State or Federal endangered species list, including but not limited to" the federal list, the IUCN Red List, and the state's own, and that endangered species may not be kept as pets for any reason. The umbrella cockatoo and the Moluccan are both IUCN Endangered, so for those two the answer may be harder than a permit. As in Massachusetts, look up your species first.
Maine's CITES and IUCN Carve-Out
Maine clears the entire parrot order, Psittaciformes, from its captivity-permit requirement in one broad stroke, then takes a chunk back out: any species also listed on CITES Appendix I or the IUCN Red List's Endangered, Critically Endangered, or Extinct in the Wild tiers still needs a permit. That single clause catches some of the most commonly kept pet cockatoos by name. The Moluccan and yellow-crested cockatoos are both CITES Appendix I. The umbrella cockatoo is IUCN Endangered, even though it's only CITES Appendix II, which means the IUCN half of Maine's rule catches it on its own. Smaller, more secure species like the cockatiel or the galah clear Maine's list with no permit at all. So "is a cockatoo legal in Maine" isn't a single yes-or-no, it depends entirely on which cockatoo you're asking about. Arkansas took the opposite approach: its unrestricted list names five cockatoo species outright, Moluccan and yellow-crested included, with no conservation-status carve-out at all, the same CITES Appendix I birds Maine treats as needing a permit.
Hawaii: A Process, Not a Ban
Hawaii doesn't ban cockatoos, but it doesn't treat them as an ordinary pet either. White cockatoos, along with the galah, gang-gang, black cockatoos, and palm cockatoo, are named on the state's list of conditionally approved animals. Getting one into the state legally means securing an import permit, completing pre-departure quarantine, providing health certification, and having the bird permanently identified, all before it's allowed to land. It's a real, working process rather than a ban, but it's a meaningfully higher bar than most states set.
The Takeaway
Cockatoos are broadly legal pets in the US, and in most states that's the entire analysis. Maine is the exception worth remembering, not because it singles out cockatoos by name, but because its CITES Appendix I and IUCN Red List carve-out happens to catch several of the species people actually keep, the Moluccan, yellow-crested, and umbrella cockatoo among them, while leaving smaller parrots untouched. Arkansas shows the same birds can be regulated completely differently: named outright on an unrestricted list with no conservation-status test at all. Hawaii adds a real but manageable import process rather than a ban. Our African grey parrot legal guide covers another CITES-affected parrot with very different treatment, and our exotic pet legal hub has the broader framework behind rules like this.
To see this at a glance, our interactive map of cockatoo laws shades every state that restricts one, and clicking a state gives you the rule it comes from.
Sources & Further Reading
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
Is a Moluccan cockatoo legal to own in Maine?
Not under Maine's blanket parrot exemption. Maine clears the entire order Psittaciformes from its captivity-permit requirement, except for any species listed on CITES Appendix I or the IUCN Red List's Endangered, Critically Endangered, or Extinct in the Wild tiers. The Moluccan cockatoo is CITES Appendix I, so it falls into that carve-out and needs Maine's captivity permit rather than clearing automatically the way a cockatiel or galah would.
Does CITES Appendix I mean my cockatoo is illegal?
Not by itself. CITES governs international trade, not domestic ownership, so an Appendix I listing doesn't make owning a captive-bred bird illegal on its own. Maine is the specific case where it matters here, since its parrot exemption is written to carve Appendix I species back out, so in Maine that listing does trigger an extra permit requirement. Arkansas shows the opposite approach, naming the same Appendix I species, the Moluccan and yellow-crested cockatoo, directly on its unrestricted list with no such carve-out.
Is a cockatoo legal in Hawaii?
Yes, but not as a simple pet-store purchase. Cockatoos are on Hawaii's list of conditionally approved animals, which means bringing one into the state requires an import permit, pre-departure quarantine, health certification, and permanent identification before the bird arrives. It's a real, working process rather than a ban.
📰 More on the Cockatoo
📘 Cockatoo care guide
🦜 How Much Does a Cockatoo Really Cost?
🦜 How to Handle a Cockatoo (And Why They're So Often Surrendered)
🦜 Common Cockatoo Health Issues and What Causes Them
🦜 Cockatoo Cage Setup: Size, Material, and Daily Enrichment That Actually Matters
🦜 Cockatoo Feeding: Schedule, Diet, and the Ratio Worth Memorizing
Written by Michael Ryan
Mike has looked after a neighbor’s cockatoo on and off for years.
Mike keeps two rescued bearded dragons, Dex and Cera, and writes the care guides on BeastlyFacts from his own research and mistakes. He is not a veterinarian.
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