An auction, a championship or a season's close all get prepared backwards from the date. So for every known deadline, this calendar shows the lead time to count back to file a request on time. Showing up on the right day with an incomplete file is the same as not showing up at all.
Three questions, in this order, not the other way round.
A sale, a competition, a delivery agreed with a buyer. It's the finish line, not the starting point.
The processing time of the authority in charge, which depends on neither seller nor buyer and stretches out when demand is high.
The target date, minus the lead time. It's the only date that actually commits the seller, and the one that gets missed most often.
Dates set by an administration. They're the only ones on this calendar that aren't negotiable.
To be requested first: the export permit can only be issued afterwards.
A planning benchmark, not a commitment: the actual timeframe depends on the management authority of the destination country.
The breeding cycle. It drives real bird availability far more than the sales calendar does.
The period when breeding pairs are left undisturbed: a transfer or a breeding-facility visit is difficult to arrange at this time.
Laying, incubation and rearing of chicks in the northern hemisphere. Birds of the year become available from summer onward.
The moulting period, during which a bird is neither presentable nor fit to transport.
A moulting bird photographs poorly: plan standard documentation before or after this period.
Renewal of plumage. The period when the bird is least presentable and least available to fly.
Open seasons, which set the pace of demand on the buyer side.
To be delivered by the opening date, the export file should begin roughly four months beforehand.
The window when demand for flight-ready birds is highest in the Gulf countries.
Three pieces of the export file have a short validity window. They get triggered last, never first: obtained too early, they expire before departure and everything has to be redone.
Valid for six months from the date it's issued. It's the longest-running counter, but also the slowest to process: it's the time it takes to obtain that sets the filing date, not the validity period.
Valid for thirty days. They depend on a lab turnaround time the seller doesn't control, and their expiry blocks the whole file even when every other document is in order.
Valid for seven days. It's the last step before departure, with zero room to manoeuvre: a flight pushed back a week means a new examination.
A document obtained out of order is a document to redo. The durations above are indicative and vary by country of origin, country of destination, species and its CITES appendix. Export Check gives the required order and the applicable counters for a specific origin-destination pair, with the source and verification date for each rule.
Dates for named events, auctions and championships first, aren't confirmed for the coming season. So they don't appear here until their organiser announces them officially. That's deliberate: a date taken from an unconfirmed announcement makes anyone who takes it seriously miss a filing.
At this stage we only publish the structural cycles that repeat every year (breeding, moult, hunting season), plus the administrative deadlines, which don't depend on the sales calendar.
The dates and lead times above stay viewable without an account. What needs a verified account is linking them to a real transaction.