Why a hybrid is not automatically an Appendix II specimen

This is the market's most costly trap, because it surfaces at inspection, not while the file is being prepared.

The rule

A hybrid with just one ancestor belonging to a species listed under Appendix I is treated as an Appendix I specimen. It follows all the same constraints: a prior import permit, a breeding establishment registered for commercial use, enhanced checks.

In the European Union, parentage is traced back four generations. A third-generation hybrid with a great-grandparent falling under Appendix I therefore remains under the strictest regime, even if its hybridization formula makes it look, commercially, like any other bird.

What this changes in practice

A seller who prepares an Appendix II file for a bird that in fact falls under Appendix I does not have an incomplete file: they have a false one. The difference matters, because an inaccurate declaration about the nature of a specimen is not treated as an administrative omission.

Practical consequence: the hybridization formula alone is not enough to determine the applicable regime. The genealogy is needed, and it must be producible. That is precisely what a lineage registry is for: keeping it, generation after generation, instead of reconstructing it under pressure at the time of sale.

How to protect yourself

• Document parentage at birth, not at sale. A lineage is built, it is not reconstructed after the fact.
• Keep the reference numbers of ancestors, not just their names: closed-ring and transponder numbers.
• Ask the management authority for its view on the applicable regime before preparing the documents, whenever there is doubt about an ancestor.