- 1 week ago
A homeless musician finds meaning to his life when he starts a friendship with dozens of parrots.
That story describes the real-life story of Mark Bittner, a homeless musician in San Francisco who found purpose and connection by caring for a flock of wild parrots on Telegraph Hill and was the subject of the acclaimed 2003 documentary, "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill". The film follows Bittner's journey as he forms deep bonds with the birds, offering companionship and a renewed sense of meaning to his life on the streets, a narrative that resonated deeply with audiences as a story of second chances and unexpected connections
That story describes the real-life story of Mark Bittner, a homeless musician in San Francisco who found purpose and connection by caring for a flock of wild parrots on Telegraph Hill and was the subject of the acclaimed 2003 documentary, "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill". The film follows Bittner's journey as he forms deep bonds with the birds, offering companionship and a renewed sense of meaning to his life on the streets, a narrative that resonated deeply with audiences as a story of second chances and unexpected connections
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00:02:38Demande au monsieur si c'est des perroquets à lui, ou pas à lui. Demande-lui.
00:02:45Est-ce que c'est des perroquets à toi?
00:02:48Excuse-me.
00:02:49Is it your perroquets?
00:02:51No, these are wild.
00:02:53How many are there?
00:03:08Around 45.
00:03:09Do you know all the names of the birds?
00:03:12I gave them their names.
00:03:13Yes, so you see a difference.
00:03:15Yes.
00:03:16For us, they all look the same, but...
00:03:18Well, each bird is a little different than the others.
00:03:20Right.
00:03:21This is Gibson.
00:03:22I know Gibson because he has grooves down the side of his beak,
00:03:25and he has orange on top of his head,
00:03:28where the red feathers are.
00:03:30Excuse me.
00:03:31Usually, some little marking I recognize
00:03:33or a particular behavior.
00:03:35Hey, Flap, you want to do your trick?
00:03:37You want to do your trick, Flap?
00:03:39Come on.
00:03:42You want to look at a menu?
00:03:44You want the daily special?
00:03:46Are you Flap Doodle?
00:03:47You a Flap Doodle?
00:03:49Come on, Flap.
00:03:53Special today on Seeds.
00:03:55Yeah.
00:03:56Okay, there you go.
00:03:59You silly bird.
00:04:01Why doesn't anybody else do that?
00:04:04How can you're the only one who does that?
00:04:06What does that mean?
00:04:07You have a distinct personality or something?
00:04:09or something how long have you owned these oh i don't own any of them actually they're all wild
00:04:21do they ever go into your house i take the sick ones into the house but they
00:04:25won't go in voluntarily no what type of carrots are they cherry-headed conures
00:04:31if you stop feeding them would they like move i mean go someplace else or yeah they wouldn't
00:04:38have any problem at all they eat a lot of fruit and they eat like little nuts and they eat
00:04:44they eat pine cones most of their day is spent eating and playing so they'd be all right if you
00:04:49weren't feeding them if you weren't taking care of them they could exist by themselves in the wild
00:04:54yeah okay you get paid does the city pay you to take care of them like this no no the city ignores
00:05:04well no actually the city's been very helpful but supportive in a you know spiritual way
00:05:09where is it kind of like the saint francis of uh telegraph hill huh
00:05:25do you have names for them yeah i i have names for them most of them have names at least
00:05:29and not really wild if you have names for them i mean if you don't mind myself you feed you feed
00:05:34them out of your hands and you have names for them and they come up to you like they're you know your
00:05:39pets no actually see originally they were somebody's pets some of them were somebody's pets they were
00:05:45originally wild birds that were caught down in the wild shipped up here to be sold as pets they were
00:05:51pets and then they were either you know deliberately released or escaped but all these others that you're
00:05:56seeing here were born here in the city they're actually wild wild birds they're their own birds
00:06:01they're just like the robins or the scrub jays or any others around here they're wild
00:06:09yeah but uh you don't take care of the any of the other robins or scrub jays or whatever
00:06:16no that's that's true i don't you only take care of the parrots just the parrots
00:06:19yeah all right well whatever uh good luck okay thank you
00:06:49hey man guys wanna dance
00:07:01well i got me a roof and i got me some clothes and i eat real good man i overdose
00:07:09when it gets dark you know i turn on the light put on my shades when the sun's too bright
00:07:17every comfort for every climb i still can't get me no peace of mind
00:07:37i don't think of myself as an eccentric
00:07:39i saw these wild parrots they were a big mystery to me and i wanted to find out who they were
00:07:47mingus for example is a really strange bird
00:07:51every single bird i've ever had in the house is always looking for the means to escape
00:07:57mingus is just the opposite he's a bird that i can't keep out
00:08:01one day i was out doing a feeding one of the cherry heads was in this bush with bright blue flowers
00:08:12and he was just ripping them to shreds it was very odd behavior
00:08:17it was a cherry-headed conure but i said this is not one of the birds from the flock i knew right
00:08:22away that this was a new bird you go mucus he was desperately hungry and i started offering him
00:08:29seeds and he took them right away so he obviously was used to human beings
00:08:36and i started encouraging him to come into the house a little bit just so that i could check him
00:08:40out and just over the next few weeks he started coming in more and more and then i started thinking
00:08:47well i don't need another bird so i started trying to make him stay out but he started coming in every
00:08:57chance he got i couldn't keep him out he's the only wild bird i've had that didn't want to be wild
00:09:07his right leg was broken once and it hangs when he flies that might be part of the reason he doesn't
00:09:12fly with the flock he might not have the endurance to he was a banded bird and it was a quarantine
00:09:20band so i knew that he was a wild caught imported bird sometimes what they did to catch birds is
00:09:28they chopped down a tree that had a nest in it so it's possible that when the tree landed if that's
00:09:34the case for mingus that his leg got broken then i mean it could have happened in a lot of different ways
00:09:42mingus there's this milk crate that holds up my refrigerator and that's his nest he's really
00:09:51protective of the nest area he's sort of dr jekyll and mr hyde he's got one really sweet sweet side
00:09:59of him and there's this one really nasty side of him he'll withdraw into his nest and the sort of
00:10:07transformation takes place and then it's like the evil twin is taking over
00:10:17mingus
00:10:17mingus
00:10:28mingus stop it
00:10:43okay mingus i warned you come on you're going outside come on come on come on come on
00:10:51all right come on all right betcha i gotcha all right i got side
00:11:02mingus is one of those type of critters it's like a lot of people you might fight with them
00:11:05constantly but you really love them that's how i feel about mingus
00:11:11when mingus is a bad bird rather than putting him in the cage i throw him outside
00:11:15he wants back in so badly he's utterly terrified of being forced to leave
00:11:34so
00:11:43Come on, Mingus, let's go in.
00:12:13This is one of the classic stairways of San Francisco.
00:12:26We're in a garden that is essentially a bunch of little habitats on a hillside, but these
00:12:35trees harbor a lot of the birds, the parrots will land here, they'll land in this strawberry
00:12:40guava here, which is an unusual, it's a very unusual thing.
00:12:47It blooms very lightly and then it gets fruit way late into October, and the parrots will
00:12:53come and they'll come early and they'll wait and they'll keep checking and checking.
00:12:57When is this fruit coming in and they're tiny little things, they just love them to death.
00:13:01We have these fabulous lemons and bananas, I've always been surprised that the parrots
00:13:05don't go for the banana trees, because I actually have three bananas, they're not in very good
00:13:09shape right now.
00:13:10See the balcony through the tree, that's exactly where he was standing, up on that
00:13:14fire escape.
00:13:15He'd stand up there for hours at a time.
00:13:17And he had the bowl in the corner, just like he does now on his deck, he had it sitting on
00:13:22the corner and they would come and sit on the edge of the bowl, and like I said, he'd just
00:13:25be standing there, and then eventually his hand was out, and eventually he was standing
00:13:30right next to the bowl and they were on his shoulders and arms.
00:13:33But it did, I mean, I think it took, I think it took a year to really get him to be familiar
00:13:38enough to really touch him.
00:13:39I've been tempted to grow a beard and wear a jeans jacket, and I thought maybe that was
00:13:42the trick.
00:13:43the denim and the beard that's attracting the bird.
00:13:48one of the most interesting things to me right at the start was when I realized that they're
00:13:58actually paired up.
00:14:00the denim and the denim and the denim and the denim and the denim and the denim.
00:14:04Now, it's not always lifelong.
00:14:07It's not always monogamous, I guess you'd say.
00:14:12They do break up occasionally.
00:14:14There was this pair of scrapper and scrapperella.
00:14:17They were together for several years.
00:14:19She's a feather plucker.
00:14:21She pulls out all her feathers.
00:14:25It's unheard of in a wild bird.
00:14:27Pet birds get into it.
00:14:29So maybe she was somebody's pet and got started there.
00:14:33She was plucking herself and she was plucking Scrapper, her mate.
00:14:37To this day, there's an area around Scrapper's neck that's never grown back.
00:14:44They broke up.
00:14:45I always like to think it was because she was plucking him and he was getting tired of it.
00:14:50And he kept asking her to please stop and she kept promising she would, but she was obsessive
00:14:56and couldn't.
00:15:07Hey, Connor.
00:15:09You're a beautiful bird, Connor.
00:15:17You know, it's funny because I can make jokes about the other birds.
00:15:20But I don't really make jokes about Connor.
00:15:23There's something about him that really stands out.
00:15:26It's not just because of the blue head.
00:15:29Connor's a different species than the other birds in the flock.
00:15:33He's a blue-crowned conure.
00:15:36His personality is a lot different than the cherry heads.
00:15:40They're really hot, feisty birds.
00:15:43And, uh, Connor is really cool and quiet.
00:15:50He's also kind of cranky.
00:15:52Actually, he's very cranky, aren't you, Connor?
00:15:54But that's because he doesn't have a mate.
00:15:56He's not treated well by the others.
00:16:01But it's interesting because he's been out in the flock longer than any of them.
00:16:06There was a small group of four birds that started this flock, and he was in that group.
00:16:11I think only one of those others is still alive.
00:16:14So Connor's at least 13, 14 years old.
00:16:20He's always been friends with the outcasts.
00:16:25He's befriended several parakeets.
00:16:27There was a bird I called Smitty, who used to eat the crumbs that fell out of Connor's beak.
00:16:34Little bits of apple would drop, and then the budgie would get to eat those crushed bits of apple.
00:16:40I don't think Connor really liked Smitty.
00:16:43He was just tolerant.
00:16:45He's a parrot, so he needs some company.
00:16:48Every now and then, he'd get a little snappy with the budgie.
00:16:52Like a little brother, but a little pest.
00:16:54Connor is really regal, but he's also disgruntled.
00:17:06He's unhappy, clearly unhappy being with this species.
00:17:11He'd much rather be with other blue-crowned conures.
00:17:24I've been making films half my life, but I got started young as a bird watcher.
00:17:34That's my grandfather.
00:17:37He's letting me look through his spotting scope at some ducks.
00:17:41When I started filming Mark, I realized, hey, wait a minute.
00:17:48He reminded me of my grandfather.
00:17:50Not his age or anything, but my grandfather used to feed the birds out in the backyard.
00:17:55And one of the things he did was he would stand there with his hand up, with sunflower seeds in his hand,
00:18:01and these little chickadees would come down and eat out of his hand.
00:18:06And he taught me how to do that when I was about eight years old.
00:18:10It was the same thing with these birds.
00:18:17Time stopped.
00:18:26There was another thing I noticed about Mark right away.
00:18:30He has a lot of time.
00:18:33I'd been wanting to do a project that was more individual than the environmental films I'd been making,
00:18:39but I never seemed to have the time to figure out what that was.
00:18:46Mark has time to feed the birds, take care of sick birds inside the house,
00:18:52keep a detailed flock diary, all with no visible means of support.
00:18:58No money, but all the time in the world.
00:19:02How does he get away with that?
00:19:05Mark?
00:19:06Buongiorno.
00:19:07Buongiorno.
00:19:08Cosa vuoi?
00:19:09Doki Espresso.
00:19:10Ok, tardi.
00:19:11Lieve peshtri?
00:19:12Echo.
00:19:13Porti sti for you, please.
00:19:14No, no, Mark.
00:19:15Lavora nella television.
00:19:16No, Mark.
00:19:17Lavora nella television.
00:19:18No, Mark.
00:19:19Lavora nella television.
00:19:20Ah, grazie.
00:19:21Very much better.
00:19:22Ok, thanks.
00:19:23Jeez.
00:19:24Arrivederci.
00:19:25Arrivederci.
00:19:26Hi, Pamela.
00:19:27If a few years ago somebody had said you would be spending all your days, every day,
00:19:34being absorbed with a flock of birds, it would have sounded completely absurd.
00:19:40When I arrived in North Beach, well, I was heading off to try to be a rock and roll star.
00:19:50Mamma, la mia canzone vola.
00:19:57Those Italian women, you know, they really kept a lot of people alive.
00:20:00And there was this one bakery that if you bought anything at all, like just a French roll,
00:20:06if you could get enough money to buy a French roll, they'd load a bag up with pizza bread.
00:20:10They were really nice.
00:20:12I came down from Seattle and I wanted to make it in music and my idea was to do it in San Francisco.
00:20:36Hey, how are you, man?
00:20:38And North Beach was something I'd been reading about for years, you know, the beats.
00:20:43And when I was there, it was the tail end of the hippies.
00:20:46But there was still, I mean, you'd see Allen Ginsberg walking up and down the street sometimes when he was in town.
00:20:51Gregory Corso, he was there.
00:20:54Lawrence Ferlinghetti, you know, all those people.
00:20:57It was a legendary place.
00:20:59I liked the beats, but I thought they were a little bit too down.
00:21:05And I liked the hippies, but I thought they were a little too airy.
00:21:08I mean, at the extremes in both of those movements.
00:21:19I read a lot.
00:21:21Gary Snyder used to live on Telegraph Hill in the 50s, before he went to Japan.
00:21:27There is that time-monored American tradition of going out on the road.
00:21:36I just wasn't out on the highway, I was on the streets.
00:21:39There was this guy walking up and down the street and he said, oh, you know, you ought to go sleep on the roof of this hotel.
00:21:54That's where everybody else is sleeping.
00:21:56And there was this big rope that went from this hut that was on top of it to this pole.
00:22:01And there were all these carpets laying around on the roof.
00:22:03So I threw some carpets over this rope.
00:22:04So I threw some carpets over this rope.
00:22:05So I had a little tent.
00:22:06The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
00:22:08Baby, ain't we got fun.
00:22:09I've been here for 26 years now, almost.
00:22:13I haven't really paid rent in 25 years.
00:22:20I'm sorry I have to ask, but what's the difference between you and a pigeon lady?
00:22:27I don't know.
00:22:52I stayed in basements, I slept in a storeroom for about a year and a half.
00:23:08You have to sleep somewhere.
00:23:11Tell me again why you refuse to get a job.
00:23:18Well, look, I work. Just a lot of the work that I do, you don't get paid for or you don't get paid for it right away.
00:23:27I've done all the usual odd jobs, you know, painting rooms, cleaning houses.
00:23:33I've made cappuccinos, which is a real survival skill in North Beach.
00:23:38But it was all stuff that was temporary.
00:23:41I was always trying to keep my freedom at the center, not my freedom to be a bum or a no-count or something,
00:23:47but my freedom to move forward, to stay in this kind of spiritual place as opposed to just a careerist path.
00:23:55But things weren't working because I was trying to do something that I wasn't suited to do and I knew it.
00:24:02I realized I wasn't going back to music, that that was done.
00:24:07But I still didn't have a forward direction. I mean, what the Buddhists would call right livelihood.
00:24:12I didn't have that. I didn't have any way of making a living.
00:24:15And to make a living was to be doing something that you loved, something that was creative, something that made sense.
00:24:22I always assumed that the end was just around the corner, but it drug on for years and years.
00:24:28I just, you know, hoped and prayed that eventually it was going to lead me where I wanted to be.
00:24:33And it was a long, long time. I was on the street for 15 years there.
00:24:39Who am I? Where am I going? What am I doing?
00:24:43I really wanted a real transformation.
00:25:11Then I got a caretaking gig on the other side of Telegraph Hill from North Beach, surrounded by these huge gardens.
00:25:18I'd been reading Gary Snyder a lot because I wanted to get into nature and he was a nature poet.
00:25:24He said in this one interview that I read, well, if you want to find nature, start right where you are.
00:25:30So I said, okay, well, I'll go out and get a bag of sunflower seeds.
00:25:34Let's try to identify some birds. And I say, he got, it was boring.
00:25:41But I was watching at the very moment that the first parrot came over to see what the scrub jays were eating.
00:25:47And I just went, wow.
00:25:51They didn't even seem like birds to me. They were more like monkeys.
00:25:56It wasn't a plan. It just happened.
00:26:08It was what I was doing while I was trying to figure out what that thing would be.
00:26:13My idea of where I was going to go in my life.
00:26:16But it became the thing that I'm doing.
00:26:19It's magic that way.
00:26:29Whoa. Come on, Connor. Come on.
00:26:33You old curmudgeon.
00:26:39Connor.
00:26:40You lonely old bird.
00:26:48Every spring, he sits up on the lines and screams.
00:26:51And I assume he's calling for a mate.
00:26:57He used to have another blue crown as a mate, a bird I called Catherine.
00:27:01But she died about a year after I started feeding the birds.
00:27:08Since Catherine's death, he's had some relationships, but they've been very brief.
00:27:29All these birds have known him since they were babies.
00:27:39But he's still a blue crown.
00:27:41They know he's a different species.
00:27:43Come on, Connor.
00:28:04I thought it would be really nice to make friends with a wild bird.
00:28:08And the bird that I wanted at first was Connor.
00:28:11But he didn't want to be my friend.
00:28:18He just didn't, you know, cotton to being somebody's best friend.
00:28:24A human being.
00:28:28He tolerates everybody that's around him.
00:28:31But he doesn't really have anybody that he loves.
00:28:41I'm curious about something.
00:29:02Why don't you cut your hair?
00:29:04I'll lay off.
00:29:06Yeah, what?
00:29:07You want me to answer that?
00:29:13I just made this decision that I wasn't going to cut my hair until I had a girlfriend.
00:29:17Come on, sweetie pie.
00:29:18Come on, Picasso.
00:29:20It's all right, yes.
00:29:21Good food.
00:29:22This is Picasso and Sophie.
00:29:23They're a little pair.
00:29:24How are you two doing?
00:29:26They're both somewhat crippled because they've had nerve damage from this virus.
00:29:47Picasso's had a lot of trouble in his life.
00:29:52He had a real bad fight that bloodied this eye right here real bad.
00:29:58He can't see very well out of it.
00:30:00Sophie's got an interesting story, actually, because when she was ill, she fell out of a tree down at Washington Square Park.
00:30:13And a homeless woman found her, picked her up, put her in this sack, and was going around the neighborhood trying to sell her.
00:30:20Somebody called me and told me about it, so I had to go down, find the homeless woman, and ransom Sophie.
00:30:26She cost me 20 bucks.
00:30:28Yes.
00:30:31Good.
00:30:40I have a fantasy about them.
00:30:42I always imagine Sophie being this little French girl who loves her big Picasso.
00:30:50She's a small bird, and she was the one that established the relationship because he just wasn't smart enough.
00:30:57to do it himself.
00:31:00She's just exasperated with her Picasso sometimes, that big dumb rug.
00:31:06You know?
00:31:07Picasso.
00:31:08You can see her little beret, can't you?
00:31:12She loves him.
00:31:13Hey, Sophie.
00:31:14Where's Picasso, Sophie?
00:31:15Where's Picasso?
00:31:16Where's Picasso?
00:31:17Where's Picasso?
00:31:18Still think about Picasso?
00:31:19Hmm?
00:31:20Remember Picasso?
00:31:21Hmm?
00:31:22You remember Picasso?
00:31:24Sophie's been showing up all by herself for about 10 days, I'd say, without Picasso.
00:31:29Good girl, how you doing?
00:31:30Mm-hmm.
00:31:31He had the virus once, so he was a little bit unstable.
00:31:34You know, there have been a lot of hawks around here lately too.
00:31:51days, I'd say, without Picasso. Good girl, how you doing? He had the virus once, so he
00:31:58was a little bit unstable. You know, there have been a lot of hawks around here lately
00:32:02too. It's possible Picasso got picked off. He's blind on that one side, so if a hawk
00:32:11was coming after him, he might not see it in time. I've always thought of Sophie as
00:32:18kneading Picasso, but she is pretty spunky. Hello, Connor. You're such a good-looking
00:32:30bird, Connor. I have seen birds disappear for like 10 days, go into mourning or
00:32:37something when a mate dies. Connor, when Catherine died, Connor disappeared for 10
00:32:45days. Connor? Hey, Sophie. I'd like to see Connor and Sophie get together. I think
00:32:54they'd be ideal for each other. I think Connor's interested. I think Sophie is dubious, but,
00:33:03you know, she just lost Picasso, so maybe she needs some more time to mourn. I don't know.
00:33:08Sophie needs somebody to look out for her. She's not a very strong bird. She's got a lot
00:33:15of nerve damage. And Connor, when he is protecting a mate, is a lot tougher than when he's not.
00:33:26And then maybe we'd have some purple-headed babies, yeah. I'd love to see purple-headed babies
00:33:32in the flock.
00:33:56Good morning, Lorries.
00:33:58Hey, who's hungry? Lori, Lori, Lori. Hey, you guys. Aren't you hungry? Mom. Mom. Ain't no fighting.
00:34:14These are rainbow lorikeets, and they do just great in our climate here outside. They're outside all
00:34:20winter long. In fact, they like to sit out in the rain. But what San Francisco can't provide for these
00:34:25guys is their food. These are a specially adapted parrot that feeds on nectar and pollen.
00:34:33So how do these guys compare to the wild parrots of San Francisco? And how can they survive the cold?
00:34:40Well, when Mark Bittner first called me, that was the question he asked. There are all these wild
00:34:47parrots flying around San Francisco. How can they live through the winter here? How can they survive?
00:34:50And the answer is really the same. The parrots aren't bothered by the cold nearly as much
00:34:57as they would be by a lack of food. And one of the things that San Francisco and other urban areas
00:35:02provide are myriad wild subtropical plants that are brought here as part of our landscaping.
00:35:12Well, Mark has called me off and on to ask questions that have come up in his mind
00:35:20as he's observed these birds. And I've got to say, when he first called, what I was taken by
00:35:25was the fact that here's a guy that is beginning to understand the relationships between the individual
00:35:31birds, which is a very rare opportunity in science, because parrots are very difficult to follow in
00:35:37nature. They're difficult to study in a rainforest.
00:35:47Well, when I first started observing the flock, I established finally that
00:35:51there were cherry-headed conures, and then I discovered that there were blue-crowned conures
00:35:56in the flock. And then I saw these green conures, and I looked them up, and I thought they were
00:36:03white-eyed conures. Well, there was a strange thing the white-eyed conures were doing. They were
00:36:09coming up to the cherry heads and looking up at them like, please do it again, do it again. And
00:36:14cherry heads would look at them like, oh, come on, you really want it, don't you? And the white-eyed
00:36:20would go, yes, please do it again. So the cherry heads would take the white-eyed conures' beaks and
00:36:25their beaks and jerk their heads up and down real fast, and then let go. And the white-eyed conures would look
00:36:32up and go like they were in a state of bliss. It was the strangest thing. I had no idea what was going
00:36:38on. I thought it was just this weird trip that the white-eyed conures were on, and the cherry heads were
00:36:43indulging for some reason.
00:36:57I mean, that's really stupid now. It's laughable, from what I know, because what they were doing,
00:37:12it was the cherry heads feeding their babies. But I didn't know anything like that at the time.
00:37:19One day I came across the information that the cherry head babies, when they first come out,
00:37:27are totally green. So then I realized, oh, they're breeding. And that was something I didn't think
00:37:31that was possible. That was one reason I assumed that they had to be another species. Because this is
00:37:37San Francisco, it's too cold. I mean, it's strange enough that these parrots are here, but they're
00:37:41breeding too. That's impossible.
00:37:59When I first started looking at the parrots, I had all these questions. And I really wanted to find
00:38:05somebody, you know, who knew something. Because they were so exotic, and because I didn't understand
00:38:11that there were other parrot flocks in the United States, I thought this was a one-of-a-kind situation.
00:38:16So I figured, well, somebody has to be studying this. This is so weird.
00:38:28A lot of the information that I had right at the start was easy to know, but nobody was interested.
00:38:34Nobody cared. From the official bird world, it just wasn't a thing of interest, because they were
00:38:39non-native. I mean, you had, from one end, the parrot industry, which is saying, you know,
00:38:43this is escaped merchandise. This is terrible. And then you have the birders, which are going,
00:38:49these birds are non-native. They don't belong here. They're as bad as starlings.
00:38:55So there was no interest from either side.
00:38:57In fact, I was the only one studying them.
00:39:13You know, I don't know a lot about native birds, but my sense from what I've read and from what I've
00:39:17seen is that the parents of native birds are getting their babies out of the nest, out of their
00:39:22lives as quickly as possible, where you see the parrots have a real big investment in their family.
00:39:29The babies stay with the parents almost an entire year.
00:39:31I'd been really curious as to what actually happened when a baby fledged.
00:39:39And I always imagined the parents trying to coax the young out of the nest hole, but that wasn't
00:39:45what happens at all. They keep stuffing the baby back in. The baby wants out.
00:40:01When the baby's so strong that they can't keep the baby in there anymore,
00:40:05they'll fly over to a branch nearby and just wait for that baby to fledge.
00:40:08And then the baby will just burst out of the hole.
00:40:31I don't tell anybody where the nests are. I just call it the Republic of El Coto.
00:40:38The Republic of El Coto.
00:40:43.
00:43:24onto my deck, she was on her back. She couldn't fly anymore. I could see she was not going
00:43:30to make it, so I picked her up and took her into the house. Well, I knew they had babies
00:43:34in that nest. Pushkin would have to go around getting food for those babies and food for
00:43:42himself and going back to feed them. There would be nobody to stay with the babies. I
00:43:45thought maybe they wouldn't be able to keep warm enough. I assumed those babies were finished.
00:43:53Pushkin had never been a father before, but he hung on there, and he kept coming to me
00:43:58all day long, over and over again, and it was clear that he was eating for more than just
00:44:03himself. So I started thinking, well, maybe he is actually raising these babies on his
00:44:09own, and then one of the babies stepped out to greet him, and I saw his first flight, and
00:44:21I thought that was just beautiful.
00:44:23There's another flock in another part of the city in the Mission, and that's a different
00:44:28species. They're called canary-winged parakeets. In fact, that flock used to fly this hill,
00:44:35but this flock kicked him out. Both flocks are escaped pets, but nobody really knows how
00:44:42they got out. I've heard all kinds of things. There's a ton of urban legends.
00:44:49In the twenties or thirties, a truck that was delivering parrots to pet stores in San Francisco
00:44:56had an accident right here in Dolores, and fell over and all these birds, all this beautiful
00:45:03color came up, and it was flying into the trees here. The only thing that anybody could think
00:45:07of is that they flew out of the city. They flew out of the city, and they flew out of the
00:45:12city. They flew out of the city, and they flew out of the city. They flew out of the city.
00:45:18Maybe from South America. If you had a pet bird, and you had a roommate, and the pet bird made
00:45:38lots of noise, I think a lot of them just got released. It's too loud, so it's gone.
00:45:47Across the street, in one of these two big houses, there lived an old woman who had parrots,
00:45:57and the story was that when she died, whoever was taking care of her estate let the parrots
00:46:03go free, and that was the beginning of the flocks of parrots on Russian helm.
00:46:08I heard of a story where there was a shipment of conures down at SFO, and the box broke, and
00:46:16the birds flew out loose. You think they could have made it all the way up to San Francisco?
00:46:21Oh, sure. Another one was there was this crazy woman who had a store somewhere downtown,
00:46:28and she went nuts. I think she just flipped out, had a breakdown. Maybe too many birds.
00:46:35Too much noise. Who knows? I mean, there's stress in having a bird store.
00:46:41You know all about that, huh? A little.
00:46:48And she couldn't feed the birds for a while, and the health department came in, and opened up all the doors,
00:46:56and birds flew out, and things like that. And then the other one was a friend of mine
00:47:02who was delivering me birds at my store on Fillmore Street, had some conures in a box,
00:47:09and he left one of the panels open, and they flew all out.
00:47:14What do you think is the most likely? I think the last one.
00:47:18I think Jim's birds flew out, and they were the beginning of the population of the flock.
00:47:23You guys hungry?
00:47:48You guys hungry?
00:47:51Okay, the baby with the bite on Freud is on the dish right now, on the far side.
00:47:58They're getting ready for the breeding season, and they get really excited this time of year,
00:48:04and they get into a lot of fights. They're really loud, and they're really violent with each other sometimes.
00:48:09It's just their way of communicating with each other, I guess.
00:48:12Whoa, what happened to you?
00:48:20Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch.
00:48:27I've actually seen Connor come to the aid of sick or injured birds that the flock was picking on.
00:48:42Whenever a bird is ill or injured, the rest of the parrots can be merciless with the injured or sick member of the flock.
00:48:51Like a sick juvenile, for example. Connor would come to that bird's aid when that bird was under attack from a healthy bird.
00:49:04We got quite a little list of these bats.
00:49:05We can need to have a wichtig heard in a little bit of a sappy bird.
00:49:06We got a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a disease.
00:49:07We got a little bit of a hot dog about them in the middle and we got a little bit of a quick experience.
00:49:11Connor, you watching out for the Hawks?
00:49:41See a hawk or something? Is there a hawk here? Hear that sound they're making? That caw, caw, caw. That's the sound they make when they see a hawk.
00:49:56Yep, there it is.
00:50:05I never noticed the hawks until the parrots pointed them out to me.
00:50:10The most common hawk in the area is the red-tail.
00:50:18I usually see red-tailed hawks, cooper's hawks, sometimes sharp-shinned, red-shouldered hawks.
00:50:28Connor is not as fearful as the cherry heads. It takes a lot more to worry him.
00:50:39They have hawk alarms that go out constantly, and Connor will ignore a lot of those hawk alarms. He's not as afraid of the hawks as the cherry heads are.
00:50:49They see a soaring bird, they'll take off. Connor has to be certain that it's a real danger.
00:50:55The flock has several different ways of responding to hawks. Sometimes what it does is it scatters off in a lot of different directions, so that it confuses the hawk, and the hawk doesn't know which way to go.
00:51:07Another method is kind of funny. The flock flies up behind the hawk, and then follows it. And then the hawk can only attack from above and behind, so it neutralizes the hawk.
00:51:23I saw this huge red-tailed hawk nest in Golden Gate Park. It's in the trees right above Stow Lake.
00:51:30The babies were tearing up the bird that the mother had brought in.
00:51:38Usually, you just see red-tails eating rodents, things like that. They're not inclined to eat birds as much, but obviously occasionally they will eat a bird.
00:51:54You can see the babies eating the feathers of the bird.
00:52:05Being eaten by a hawk has got to be a parrot's worst nightmare.
00:52:08There usually is a watch parrot looking for hawks.
00:52:23What are their other predators besides hawks and cats? Or is that about it?
00:52:28Human beings. I think that's really the only other danger they face is human beings.
00:52:38I think that's not the way well as good.
00:52:41Do you think?
00:52:55One would it!
00:52:56No!
00:52:57I think it's the only other cherub està.
00:52:59Man, no.
00:53:02Adelaide!
00:53:03So, let's go.
00:53:33I was seeing the parrots do all these strange things every day, and I would tell my neighbors
00:53:44stories, and they kept saying, well, you ought to write this stuff down, and I would say,
00:53:49well, yeah, I probably should, and I just never did.
00:53:53Then, finally, one day, somebody brought me a journal and said, here, start writing.
00:54:02Here, I started actually writing articles based on the journals.
00:54:07And somebody said, oh, well, if you're writing about the parrots, you'll need a computer.
00:54:11So they gave me a computer.
00:54:12I needed some slides for an article that I'd written.
00:54:16So I started taking slides, and I had a cheap camera at first.
00:54:20And then I started borrowing better cameras and buying professional film.
00:54:30I never had the idea of a career.
00:54:33Well I did, actually.
00:54:34I wanted to be a musician.
00:54:35That was the last time I wanted to have a career.
00:54:38But I am moving in a direction that can support me.
00:54:41I mean, I can see it.
00:54:45You look dirty, Connor.
00:54:46You do.
00:54:47You're a mess.
00:54:48Come on.
00:54:49You hungry?
00:54:52When a new feather grows in, it is wrapped in something that's called a keratin sheath.
00:55:12It itches, and it's prickly.
00:55:15The parts of Connor that he can preen, I mean, he preens with his beak just like any
00:55:18other bird, but it's the area around his neck and on his skull that he has a difficult
00:55:22time with.
00:55:23That's where all those pin feathers are.
00:55:24They have to have a mate do that.
00:55:26And when that happens, I've taken him out of the flock to preen him myself.
00:55:33He doesn't like it, but he's a beautiful bird, and I can't stand to see him looking
00:55:37that way.
00:55:42One time, see, I actually had a blue crowned conure in the house.
00:55:45It was somebody's pet.
00:55:48The blue crown was given to me because the woman that owned it just couldn't deal with
00:55:52him anymore.
00:55:53And she asked me if I wanted it, and I thought, oh, that's perfect.
00:55:57I can give Connor a mate.
00:55:59I thought it was a female.
00:56:00It turned out to be a male.
00:56:01They were both males.
00:56:02Connor, he had a lot of pin feathers at the time.
00:56:05And I had this other bird clean him up.
00:56:08And Bucky did.
00:56:09He gave Connor a real good cleaning.
00:56:15But then I gave Connor the option of coming and going as he liked.
00:56:28If he wanted to go out and fly with a flock, he was free to.
00:56:31If he wanted to come back in the house, he was free to.
00:56:34And for quite a while, he was quite happy to come and go.
00:56:39He would never stay out for very long.
00:56:42He always did want to be back in the house.
00:56:44This lasted for several months.
00:56:46The other bird, Bucky, didn't like it.
00:56:48Bucky was angry with Connor for leaving.
00:56:51And eventually, they started having fights about it.
00:56:58In the end, Connor chose.
00:57:00He chose to be free.
00:57:09Since the last time I brought him in and cleaned him up,
00:57:12he has kept his distance from me.
00:57:14He used to let me pet him, but he won't let me do that anymore.
00:57:17Connor?
00:57:18No.
00:57:19He's suspicious.
00:57:20I'd like to get back into his good graces before I have to leave.
00:57:41They've been really good to me.
00:57:43Why don't you follow us out?
00:57:45We can show you the lay of the property.
00:57:47I mean, they've let me stay in the cottage for nearly three years without paying any rent.
00:57:56When we first moved here, we lived up there on Alta Street.
00:58:01You can't see because this building blocks it.
00:58:04So we loved the neighborhood, and we started looking for a place to live permanently.
00:58:08Mm-hm.
00:58:09And we found this house.
00:58:11And, yeah, where we were, our unit now is the top two stories of the main house.
00:58:18And also included in the property is the cottage, which was the original structure that was built sometime, we believe, in the 1880s, which is where Mark lives.
00:58:30I'm not sure I'd use the word squatting.
00:58:33You know, it wasn't like he had snuck into the property or anything like that.
00:58:36He was living there, I guess the legal term is an occupant, but the common phrase is he's living there without paying any rent.
00:58:42Uh, but he certainly seemed like a very integral part of Telegraph Phil and the, you know, and the culture.
00:58:48Right.
00:58:49He was fine where he was to live there, and we didn't need this space.
00:58:53And you could think of all sorts of practical reasons why he should leave, but then when you, when we would talk about it, we were so uncomfortable with it,
00:59:03to the, to the thought of going down and saying, go, you know, so that when you actually meet Mark, you've met him, he's, he's a very interesting person.
00:59:14And it seemed like, well, the reason we're living here is because there's parrots and people that have lived here for 20 years and know the history.
00:59:22And it just seemed like he should stay.
00:59:24Seemed right.
00:59:25At the end of the day, it just seemed like the right thing to do.
00:59:27So, we did.
00:59:29So, Mark's going to be leaving then?
00:59:34Yes.
00:59:35Uh, as part of the, you know, the, the renovation is so substantial.
00:59:41Again, it, it requires, uh, you know, a new foundation, fundamentally, you know, new framing and structural support inside the house,
00:59:49uh, substantially new, you know, plumbing, electrical, you know, on and on and on and on.
00:59:54And so there is simply no way that, you know, a, uh, a person could continue to live in the property while it's being renovated.
01:00:01I've been involved with these birds for five and a half years now.
01:00:24And I want to present the case of just leaving them alone.
01:00:28I don't think really anything needs to be done.
01:00:30They're wild birds.
01:00:31Any questions for Mr. Bittner?
01:00:33After you leave, what will happen to these birds?
01:00:36Do you think that they will, um, take care of themselves in the wild?
01:00:40Yes.
01:00:41I'm positive.
01:00:42I mean, their biggest problem, it would be people.
01:00:44And so far they have never had that.
01:00:46And they're, they are elusive and they're difficult to get to, even if you do want to get them.
01:00:51I don't really think a special effort needs to be made.
01:00:54I think they should just be left the way any other species in the, in the city is.
01:01:01The city and county of San Francisco will do their best to make sure that nothing bad is happening to them.
01:01:07But I don't believe we're going to have any official, uh, city department going up there and feeding them and taking care of them.
01:01:14And I think that many of the commissioners are agree with me on this.
01:01:17Good.
01:01:19And again, thank you for coming down.
01:01:22I got calls from media all over the world, all over the United States, from Le Monde in Paris, the BBC, um, the New York Times, the LA Times, the Reuters news agency.
01:01:34And the amount of citizen calls from England, from all over the United States, and, uh, quite a few calling here from the Bay Area with suggestions on what the city should do to help the parents since, uh, Mr. Bittner is leaving.
01:01:47And what are some of those suggestions?
01:01:49Oh, I mean, they range from some that are, I think, you know, actually might make a little sense to some that are absolutely, I think, just, well, crazy, I'm sorry, is the only word that I can think of.
01:01:58And, and some, of course, you know, it also evokes a lot of, uh, pranksters, I think, and college kids after a couple of beers that decided they would call in with their suggestions.
01:02:06Uh, uh, we've had suggestions everywhere.
01:02:08One of the most common is that the zoo should trap them and open up the San Francisco parrot exhibit at the zoo.
01:02:15Um, others' suggestions have been that we should open up, like, feeding stations on Telegraph Hill where you'll put 50 cents into a, uh, machine and you'll get, like, some bird seed.
01:02:26And then you can feed the parrots of Telegraph Hill yourself, you know?
01:02:30Um, uh, there are a few, uh, environmentalist type and conservationist types that called and reminded me that they are non-native species.
01:02:39And that we really should not be supporting non-native species here in the state of California.
01:02:44We have a terrible problem with non-native invasive species.
01:02:47Uh, um, although I would say they are very much in the minority.
01:02:50It seems that every...
01:02:51What did they suggest we do?
01:02:52That we trap and exterminate.
01:02:54And that's pretty, pretty draconian, but that's what some of the suggestions were.
01:02:58Okay.
01:03:15Here we go.
01:03:16Come and say goodnight.
01:03:17Yeah.
01:03:22Okay.
01:03:23Oh, look at that.
01:03:30Kiss goodnight, niggas.
01:03:31Kiss, kiss.
01:03:32Kiss, kiss.
01:03:42So where are you gonna go?
01:03:44I have no idea.
01:03:53I have to figure out where I'm gonna put Mingus and the other birds.
01:04:10I can't take them with me, obviously.
01:04:23Thanks for letting me borrow the van.
01:04:25No problem.
01:04:31And we're living in an oasis for parrots.
01:04:34Yes.
01:04:35We're here.
01:04:36Hi there.
01:04:37Hey, guys.
01:04:38Hi, sweethearts.
01:04:39Yeah, let's go take a look.
01:04:42Is it okay if we come on in?
01:04:44If you don't mind the fact that we will never win any brownie points at all for better homes and gardens.
01:04:49Don't mind.
01:04:50Scary homes.
01:04:51Scary homes.
01:04:53Scary homes.
01:04:54Scary homes we could win.
01:04:55Whoa.
01:04:56Thank you, Albert.
01:04:57Albert.
01:04:58Lord have mercy.
01:04:59It's okay.
01:05:00And you thought your conures were loud.
01:05:02That's no...
01:05:03Loud is in that room.
01:05:06Mingus, why don't you attack some cockatoos?
01:05:10So you'll be sending the poor down to the oasis?
01:05:14Yes.
01:05:15Inevitably, I'll be taking yours by hand.
01:05:17I'll hand carry them because I don't want to put them through shipping trauma.
01:05:20But I will carry them to the oasis because the oasis is originally set up really to be a special needs facility for birds like yours that have special needs or handicapped or whatever other special needs might be.
01:05:33Some birds there may be blind or really, really elderly and just need more care.
01:05:38So how did you get started taking in these birds?
01:05:44I was dropped on my head as a small child.
01:05:50No.
01:05:51I had this great bleeding heart, this desire to save the world.
01:05:56I'm an only child.
01:05:57I had no siblings.
01:05:58I don't have children of my own.
01:06:00So for a while I kind of looked on it as my surrogate children.
01:06:03Hi, Mingus.
01:06:16I'll miss you, Mingus.
01:06:18I'll miss you, Mingus.
01:06:33Okay.
01:06:34Bye-bye.
01:06:35You okay, Mark?
01:06:36Yeah.
01:06:37Well, I promise you're gonna do fine.
01:06:38Yeah, I know.
01:06:39I'll keep getting care of them.
01:06:40I needed them, you know.
01:06:41I couldn't keep them.
01:06:42I needed for them to have a good home, so.
01:06:43All right.
01:06:44Thank you very much.
01:06:45Take care of her.
01:06:46Take care, Mark.
01:06:47Good meeting you.
01:06:48I'll stay in contact.
01:06:49Okay.
01:06:50You take care.
01:06:51Please.
01:06:52Take care.
01:06:53Thank you very much.
01:06:54Take care, Mark.
01:06:55Good meeting you.
01:06:56I'll stay in contact.
01:06:57Okay.
01:06:58You take care.
01:06:59Please.
01:07:00Take care.
01:07:13I've never been good at goodbyes.
01:07:29I'm terrible at them.
01:07:34There is one goodbye I wish I could have made.
01:07:39I wish I could have said goodbye to Tupelo.
01:07:42This is Tupelo's grave right in here.
01:07:49She was the first bird that I was ever taken care of that died.
01:07:57I had an experience with her the night before, which makes me think that she was dying.
01:08:10She was a total cripple at that point.
01:08:13She was completely helpless.
01:08:14She couldn't do anything for herself.
01:08:15She couldn't even feed herself anymore.
01:08:19And so I got some formula.
01:08:20It's a powder that you mix with water, and then you put it in the syringe, and you feed
01:08:25them that way.
01:08:26At first, she always fought me.
01:08:28But after a while, it was dinner time.
01:08:31She liked it.
01:08:33And so we bonded.
01:08:35But it was a pretty gloomy existence for her.
01:08:38So I decided that I'd start taking her for little walks out in the garden.
01:08:45They loved being in the sun.
01:08:46They liked being warm.
01:08:49I had a heater that she used to sit by.
01:08:52So I'd take her around to different plants, and I'd hold her up to the flowers.
01:08:57And she used to look at them.
01:08:59It was like she really enjoyed doing it.
01:09:01She seemed to.
01:09:02Her favorite seemed to be this fuchsia that has some especially nice blossoms on it.
01:09:14I'd hold her up to those blossoms, and she'd stare at them intently.
01:09:20She was really good-hearted.
01:09:25That's a good part.
01:09:28So one night, I used to lay Tupelo right next to me while I was reading, and she'd just
01:09:32sort of snuggle up against me, and she really liked that.
01:09:35But the moment I picked her up, I felt this really strange vibe pass through me.
01:09:42It was like real gratitude that I had picked her up and put her in the bed.
01:09:47It really felt like it was coming from her.
01:09:50And I thought, well, that's strange.
01:09:52That's unusual.
01:09:53I wonder what that is.
01:09:56After about 20 or 30 minutes, I wasn't going to let her stay in the bed with me, or I could crush her.
01:10:02So I closed the book, and I picked up Tupelo, and I put her on the floor.
01:10:07And the moment I did, I felt regret and resignation.
01:10:18Very strong, very clearly coming from her.
01:10:24The next morning, I started looking for Tupelo, and I couldn't find her anywhere.
01:10:32Birds, when they're sick, really like heat.
01:10:34I had this heater over here on the other side of the couch, and she had crawled over to it, and she was dead.
01:10:43I think that what she was doing, you know, I think she knew she was dying.
01:10:49She was getting cold, probably, but she knew she was fading or something, and she wanted to be with me.
01:10:56I wish I had been there with her as she died.
01:10:59I could have been holding her.
01:11:04How do you get so attached to an animal like that?
01:11:08I know there's lots of people, you know, that have experienced something like this.
01:11:11But in a certain sense, they're a lot purer than we are, because we have a lot of neurotic thoughts,
01:11:19things that bind us up inside, and we play a lot of games that animals don't play.
01:11:24They're really straightforward.
01:11:26She depended on me, so she loved me, and I felt that.
01:11:32The thing that's interesting to me, actually, a lot of people think that this is anthropomorphism.
01:11:40But I felt those, you know, those two emotions pass through me.
01:11:46They came from her.
01:11:47I didn't, I wasn't looking for anything.
01:11:50I was preoccupied.
01:11:51I was thinking about something else.
01:11:53So to say that animals don't have these kind of things is nonsense, and I think it's cruel nonsense.
01:11:58We do a lot of bad things to animals because we don't believe that, you know, they feel anything.
01:12:05So up until Tupelo's death, you know, people would often come up to me and say,
01:12:10Boy, you really, you know, you're really into this, aren't you?
01:12:13You really love those birds.
01:12:14And I was always worried that people were going to think of me as eccentric for getting so deeply involved in this.
01:12:20And I'd always downplay it, like, oh, you know, no, it's not, you know, it's just kind of a hobby, yeah.
01:12:26It's just a hobby.
01:12:27It's just something I'm sort of doing to pass the time.
01:12:31But because I couldn't talk to anybody for three days, you know, after Tupelo's death, I said,
01:12:36okay, well, you know, it's just unreal to talk to people that way.
01:12:39That's not true.
01:12:40I had to admit after that, you know, that I really did love them.
01:12:46I was unconsciously anthropocentric.
01:12:51I only thought of it in terms of human beings.
01:12:54I would say, you know, like, if somebody asked me, do animals have thoughts and feelings?
01:12:59I would say, oh, sure, of course.
01:13:01But I didn't put it into a hole.
01:13:03I didn't, I only thought, when I was thinking about consciousness, I was only thinking in terms of human beings.
01:13:09There's a number of events that have made me think differently about this.
01:13:16But Tupelo's story is definitely one thing that contributed to that idea.
01:13:21And that idea being that all life is one hole, it really is.
01:13:28There's a story that Suzuki Roshi told.
01:13:34He was the Zen master at the Zen center here in San Francisco.
01:13:38He went to Yosemite, and he sees this big waterfall coming over this cliff.
01:13:44And it's one river at the top of the cliff, but as it falls, the river breaks up into all these individual droplets.
01:13:51And then it hits the bottom of the cliff, and it's one river again.
01:13:55We're all one river until we hit this cliff.
01:13:59That distance between the top of the cliff and the bottom of the cliff is our life.
01:14:02And all the individual little droplets think they really are individual little droplets until they hit the bottom and then they're gone.
01:14:08But, you know, that droplet doesn't lose anything.
01:14:11It gains.
01:14:12It gains the rest of the river.
01:14:15Okay, Connor, this is it.
01:14:29That's the last feeding.
01:14:30You're looking pretty old.
01:14:33We're friends.
01:14:34You're gonna remember me as a friend.
01:14:43I remember you as a friend.
01:14:48I remember you as a friend.
01:14:56Bye, Connor.
01:15:18Bye.
01:15:20Bye.
01:15:48A couple of weeks after Mark moved in with some friends across the bay, I went back
01:16:13to the Greenwich steps to try to get some close-ups of Connor.
01:16:19I found him in the plum tree, barely moving.
01:16:24As it turned out, this shot was taken on the last day of Connor's life.
01:16:33Later that afternoon, three hawks attacked the parrot flock.
01:16:39Connor was never seen again.
01:16:54A neighbor took these shots that same day.
01:17:00We can't be absolutely certain the red-tail got Connor, but we think we can see some blue
01:17:08in the parrot's head.
01:17:11The red-tailed
01:17:38I can't say I don't miss him.
01:18:01I loved Connor.
01:18:03He was a kind old bird.
01:18:04And I'm sorry he died the way he did.
01:18:12I did think about retiring him, so to speak.
01:18:15Every now and then I'd say, well, he's getting old.
01:18:18Maybe it'd be better for him if he was brought in.
01:18:21But I didn't feel it was my decision to make.
01:18:23It was his.
01:18:25Once he had the opportunity to be wild, he wanted to stay wild.
01:18:28He wanted to stay free.
01:18:29But life in the wild isn't safe.
01:18:36Connor was born in the wild probably somewhere in Argentina.
01:18:39And he died in the wilds of San Francisco.
01:18:43He and the cherry heads brought me into that world.
01:18:47I used to think the native birds were really boring.
01:18:49I didn't even think about them.
01:18:50I never noticed them.
01:18:51And now I always see them.
01:18:53I always see what they're doing.
01:18:55And I see that just like the parrots, they have personalities too.
01:18:57I mean, they have their own particular lives.
01:19:03There are even quail here in the city.
01:19:09I've noticed that morning does, which look very stupid to me.
01:19:11If you get at just the right angle, you can see the pupil.
01:19:14And then you get a different idea of what they are.
01:19:16I was looking for something that I could really get into.
01:19:27I didn't expect it to go this far.
01:19:30And Mark and I became a pair.
01:19:51I'm going to.
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