The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill by Mark Bittner

If you have birds as pets, or, if you just love birds, you will love this story! It is a true story, subtitled “A Love Story With Feathers”. Mark Bittner was homeless, and directionless when the story starts. It seems like he is looking for a religion, as well as some work that is meaningful, and also wants someone to love. He ends up in San Francisco, in the Telegraph Hill area. He is there because he is watching a house for someone, on a tempory basis. Right away, he notices that there seem to be wild parrots flying around in flocks. This interests him, and he sets out to learn more. After meeting these birds, he thinks it would be cool to have a wild bird as a friend, who knows him and comes to visit, but can also go be with the flock whenever it wants to.

The book is filled with information about the birds. Bittner did lots of research about parrots. He lists scientific information about what kinds of parrots they are, as well as factual information about just how parrots get from the jungles in Africa to here in America (most of which is a really terrible experience for the birds), and also historical information about where the parrots live in San Francisco, and how that all came about.

The book is loaded with stories about the flock, which he starts feeding and gets to know well. He names individual birds, and keeps track of which birds are pairs, and which birds are siblings. He sees all sorts of examples of intelligence in these parrots. Many have a sense of humor. All seem to be different personalities. The stories are sometimes sad, sometimes funny, and always captivating.

It seems there is also a documentary of the birds and Bittner out there. In fact, part of the book is about getting that documentary filmed. I am interested in seeing it, if I can find it somewhere. I think it will be similar to, but not exactly the same as the book. I also want to go check out the Telegraph Hill area if I am ever in San Francisco, and see if I can spot any of the wild parrots.

By the end, Bittner has found everything he started out looking for, and I am glad to hear that. He seems like a good guy, and he had all sorts of struggles to get through on his way. This book is a quick read, and hard to put down. I recommend it to anyone who loves birds, especially those who have parrots or cockatiels at home with them, because they will see something of their birds in the birds Bittner describes.

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