There’s now a huge flock (130+) of cherry-headed conures living wild in San Francisco. In 1990, Mark Bittner started to feed the few individuals from whom the rest have descended. He befriended the parrots; he didn’t tame them, because they are still wild and don’t hang out with other people. This book is a fascinating mix of naturalist’s notes and misfit’s diary. Bittner matter-of-factly states “when I turned fourteen I began to recognize that I was different somehow and that I was never going to have a ‘normal’ life.” The parrots obsess him and he spends more and more time with them, subsisting as he always had on odd jobs, squatting, and intense frugality. But only someone obsessed could devote the time necessary to truly become one of the flock, someone whom the birds trust absolutely and who can intimately observe their personalities. He witnesses courtship, mating, breakups, friendships, and lots of power struggles. It’s a fascinating window on a whole social environment much like ours–like any complex social animal’s. Also confirmation of my general impression of parrot behavior: lots of screaming, flinging of food, destruction, and demands for attention. Good behavior for wild birds–not for pets. Yet this flock presumably originated from pet birds who escaped.
Mark’s now wife made a documentary film about Mark and the parrots, and there’s a website where you can read about what’s currently going on with the parrots. Mark says he has thousands of pages of notes to post eventually.