Ask for the whole file, not a summary
Contact your current practice and ask them to transfer the complete clinical file for your bird to the new practice, naming the bird, its species, and its closed ring or microchip number so the right record moves. A one-page summary is not enough for an avian vet taking over care. The new vet needs visit notes in order, recorded weights over time, laboratory results, imaging reports, beak and nail history, and notes on behaviour or appetite changes you reported. Ask whether the file will go electronically or by post, and get a date by which it will be sent.
Request your own copy in the same conversation
While the practices arrange the transfer, request a full copy for yourself and file it straight away. Owners who hold their own copy spot gaps that a busy handover misses, such as a missing weight chart for a budgerigar being monitored or a test result mentioned in a letter but never attached. Check your copy against what you remember: every visit you attended should appear, and identity details should match your hatch certificate or ring paperwork exactly. If a spelling of the species or a digit in the chip number is wrong, correct it with the old practice before the error copies itself into the new file.
Confirm receipt before the first appointment
Call the new practice a few days after the agreed send date and confirm the file has arrived and been matched to your bird's new account. Book the introductory appointment only after that confirmation, ideally a calm wellness visit rather than waiting until the bird is unwell. Take your own copy along, plus a short note of current diet, housing, sleep routine, and any change you have noticed since the last recorded visit. That first meeting lets the new vet handle the bird, record a baseline weight, and learn its temperament while there is no emergency pressing.
Know what a gap looks like and fill it honestly
If part of the history cannot be recovered, perhaps from a practice that has closed, write down what you do know rather than guessing. Note roughly when vaccinations or parasite checks were discussed, what foods the bird has eaten long term, any illnesses or egg-laying episodes you witnessed, and which vet saw the bird if you remember the practice name. Mark clearly which entries are your recollection and which are copied from documents. An avian vet would rather work from an honest partial history than a tidy one that invents dates or results.
Walk in with the packet already assembled
The smoothest first visit is one where nothing depends on a system talking to another system in time. Assemble identity papers, your copy of the clinical file, and a current care sheet before you leave home, ordered so the vet can read identity first, history second, and today's concerns last. Keeping that assembled copy in your bird's KinsLe Pet Passport means the records travel together in one portable packet whenever a practice changes, a referral happens, or an unfamiliar vet sees the bird.