Tweeters-

I just got my copy of "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill" by Mark Bittner ($22.) from the University Bookstore, and wanted to let you all know it's out. Last fall I saw one of two Seattle screenings of the documentary film Judy Irving directed about his study and personal relationship with a San Francisco flock of Aratinga parakeets (South American conures). The feral birds at Seward Park are also Aratingas.

I was incredibly impressed with the documentary, and with Mark and Judy who both attended the showing and answered questions at the Varsity last fall....I truly hope it shows again as a local screening (possible, since Mark originally is from Seattle) or a distributor picks it up now that the book is out. What is so interesting is that since this is a feral population of exotic species, they are overlooked by their local birding community as the incredible resource they are to study a threatened species that little natural history is known about in their native range. They were hoping to shop it to the distributor who released "Winged Migration". It certainly has no reason not to appeal to a similar audience; for beginning filmmaker, it flows wonderfully, has a lot of humor, some incredibly beautiful scenes (the parrots in the spring blooming cherry blossoms at the beginning) and represents its subjects well. And just some amazing moments are captured...watching the flock in!
unison eyeing a red-tail flying over and the outsider bird of the flock protecting an injured member from further harrassment both come to mind.

Because Mark became fascinated as an amateur with the parrots despite the fact that they were exotics, he has been able to document a huge amount of behaviour and flock dynamics coming initially from being just someone who wanted to learn anything about these wild parrots...which he hadn't even heard of, despite living San Francisco for years...visiting his newly-acquired birdfeeder. What I love so much is his willingness and ability to get to know the birds as individuals through slight discrepencies in plumage, morphology and behaviour...it reminds me of primate and cetacean studies, where members of a troupe or pod become recognizable and have their particular personalities. This is not a book I would shun as a typical 'general interest bird book'. But I am a bit of a softie and have become a great admirer of parrots of late. I admire that he battles internally with his status as a non-scientific observer that he strives to document everything he can, how he comes to grip!
with personal issues of anthropomorphizing these intelligent birds when he wants to do them and the scientific community a service with what he can learn and of course the great level of emotional and spiritual investment he has in this flock.

Their website is www.wildparrotsbook.com and the film is at www.pelicanmedia.org

Sincerely,
Jean Gauthier