Telegraph Hill's Wild Parrots Flee to Suburbs

A flock of the Wild Parrots have fled Telegraph Hill for the suburbs.

There goes the neighborhood -- it up and flew away.

A flock of the wild-flying green cherry-headed conures -- known to laymen as  loud, squawking parrots -- immortalized in film and in literature as the "Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill" have migrated from their home near San Francisco's northeast section to Brisbane, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

About 100 of the birds live now on the slopes of San Bruno Mountain, where there's ample food like juniper and hawthorn berries, the newspaper reported.

But don't worry: another 100 still lives by Telegraph Hill near North Beach, the newspaper reported.

The birds are known for their loud chattering cry -- a sort of "cack cack cack" was how the Chronicle described it -- and their wild, swooping acrobatics once in the air. They're wild, but love people, or at least people's food: a self-described "retired hippie couple" leave sunflower seeds on their porch for the parrots to come grab.

The birds were immortalized in the book and film, the second subject of which was Mark Bittner, the writer who fed the parrots. Somehow "domesticated suburban parrots" doesn't quite have the same ring.

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