‘The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill’ (documentary film, 2003)

One of the things I love about Netflix is the concept of the queue. A movie is mentioned on the radio, or we see a trailer, or a friend makes a recommendation, and these titles are all added to our queue. Eventually, they will show up in our mailbox. Because our queue is usually 40 or 50 items long, by the time they get here, I often can’t remember why they were added, so some of them come as a pleasant surprise. This was one of those films. I’m guessing it was recommended by Netflix because we enjoyed David Attenborough’s The Life of Birds so much.

The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill profiles Mark Bittner, who lives on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco beneath Coit Tower. He has developed an intimate relationship with a flock of feral parrots — conures, to be exact. He feeds them by hand, addresses them by name, knows their individual life histories, and opens his home to some of them now and then.

The birds are remarkable, and the film captures some of their amazing behavior in detail. Their fledging procedures, for example, are the reverse of many birds who boot the youngsters at the earliest possible date. Instead, conure parents virtually bar the door until their young almost force themselves out into flight. There’s also a hilarious scene in which one parrot undergoes a Jekyll-to-Hyde transformation under Bittner’s furniture, and another of a bird bopping to guitar music. It’s surprising how many of the key anecdotes of the flock’s life are captured close up, onscreen as they are recalled.

However, this movie is as much a study of Mark Bittner as it is of the birds he loves. As filmmaker Judy Irving underlines, “He has a lot of time.” We get a few glimpses of him in his North Beach environment, hear about his Beat Generation influences, and get a rough sketch of the long and often lonely path that has led him to this point. He is someone living his life more deliberately than many people, staying as true to himself as possible, despite the hardships such an approach is bound to incur. At the same time, his privacy is respected. This is not a soul-baring psychoanalysis or a preachy advocacy of an alternative lifestyle. It is an introduction to an interesting person who has an interesting group of friends who happen to be conure parrots. (Bittner’s book bears the same title as the movie.)

Amy and I both found this to be a very enjoyable film. The hour and 23 minutes go by quickly even though the movie’s pace is completely relaxed and easygoing. It should appeal to anyone who likes animals, and it’s appropriate for viewing by the whole family. Netflix allows customers to rate movies from 1 to 5, and at first I was leaning toward a 4, but after more reflection, I have decided that 5 is closer to true. For more information, read Roger Ebert’s review.