The Wake

A flock of wild birds, a struggling musician and a very long pony tail help to tell one man’s story caring for a flock of rare conures in The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, a documentary by Judy Irving showing this month at the Bell Museum of Natural History.

When I was “bad” as a child I was sent to my room. When Mingus is a bad bird he is sent outside. Meet Mark Bittner, with a scruffy beard, thick glasses, and overgrown hair that he has pledged not to cut until he finds a girlfriend. He can’t leave his conure Mingus outside for too long, because “he is utterly terrified of being forced to leave,” Bittner says.

Wild birds like Mingus, not native to San Francisco, or the United States for that matter, are Bittner’s closest friends. He knows most of the 45 parrots in the flock near his home by name. He can distinguish them by a groove down the side of their beak, an orange feather that should be red, or a particular behavior. Some call him the Saint Francis of Telegraph Hill.

Bittner found the rare wild birds while caretaking for a couple’s home on San Francisco’s Telegraph Hill. It was a bag of sunflower seeds that helped him find his first parrot. Bittner, originally from Seattle, moved to San Francisco in the ’70s to become a musician. After nearly 15 years as a struggling musician Bittner discovered the flock near his home and became “the bird man,” feeding, befriending and healing a rare species of cherry-headed conures.

It was a group of four that started his flock. A bird Bittner calls Connor, and his mate, Katherine, were two of this quartet. Of the 45 birds they have grown to, Connor is the only original member left.

Bittner feeds all the birds daily, but he does have his favorites. Mingus is his live-in bird, who he assumes at one time had another owner. Sophie and Picasso are “in love,” he suspects; and Connor is the only blue-crowned conure who is not treated well by the others. Connor tolerates the others, and even protects them when hawks appear, but according to Bittner, he is sad because he can’t find a new mate. Bittner filled us in on a secret””that he believes Connor has a crush on Sophie. “They would have purple-headed babies,” Bittner jokes. “I would love to see purple headed babies in the flock.”

Unlike most birds, the cherry-headed conures stay with their young for almost a year. Even when the baby wants out, the parents stuff it back in””kind of like a teenager. Once the baby is strong enough that the parents can’t keep it in the nest anymore, the parents step out of the way as the baby flies out.

Pushkin and Olive are another couple among the flock. The two had just started a family, but after Olive came off the nest and the babies were born, she started appearing ill. After falling out of the tree and onto her back, Bittner realized she wasn’t going to make it and brought her into the house. Pushkin, who had never been a father, raised the babies on his own.

No one knows how the birds, probably from Peru, ended up in San Francisco. There are a number of urban legends. A truck delivering birds to the pet store had an accident and all the birds escaped, one man says. They flew off of a ship, maybe from South America, another lady guesses. Maybe the birds were originally pets but they were too loud so many of them were released, others believe. It is a mystery to most, but a miracle for Bittner.

The director, Judy Irving, started as a young bird watcher thanks to her grandfather. He taught her how to feed birds out of her hand. “Time would stop” she says. It was the influence of her grandfather that made Irving curious in Bittner’s work, and pushed her decision to create the documentary. A documentary, in my opinion, you won’t want to miss. These birds are so unique because they are so much like us; a love triangle, a single father, a spoiled live-in and a social outcast. Their personalities, their behaviors and their relationships are astounding to see and the way Bittner associates with them is heartwarming.

At the end of the movie Bittner cuts his hair– Judy and he had become a pair.

The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill will be screened at the Bell Museum on Oct. 26, followed by a discussion led by local community group leaders and University researchers; , .