When I moved to San Francisco four years ago I was told about the flock of wild parrots that supposedly inhabits Telegraph Hill. I spent a lot of time wandering North Beach looking for them, but never found them.
jenniferroolf and I were walking through Washington Square the other afternoon when a riotous squawking that had been going on for a while asserted itself. Then we saw flashes of bright green and red swooping under the pine trees at the east side of the park.
It turns out the birds are cherry-headed conures and the flock numbers more than eighty, making it the largest known flock of urban wild parrots. The flock has been around since at least 1986 when resident Mark Bittner started feeding them. He’s heard all sorts of guesses about their origin, but says it’s most likely they are all descended from a few escaped or released wild-caught birds. They’re nearly endangered and are from the now-vanished dry mountain forests of Peru and Ecuador. They must think they’re in heaven when they get to crack nuts out of soft pinecones.
Bittner has been feeding the flock on and off for years and has a book about them in production, ready to be released in October to coincide with the documentary film being produced by Emmy-winning Judy Irving.
This isn’t my photograph of the birds–it’s Bittner’s.
