The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill
A Celebration Of Mark Bittner
Q&A with Judy Irving, Mark’s sister Beth Lyons, Sarah Lemarié of Mickaboo Companion Bird Rescue, Aaron Peskin, moderated by SF Gate‘s Amanda Bartlett!
Preceded by:
Within You Without You: The short music video featuring the harmonizing vocals of siblings Mark & Beth.
The true story of a Bohemian St. Francis and his remarkable relationship with a flock of wild red-and-green parrots. Mark Bittner, a dharma bum and former street musician in San Francisco, falls in with the flock as he searches for meaning in his life, unaware that the wild parrots will bring him everything he needs.
Since Mark’s death on March 1, 2026, many people have asked whether there would be a memorial. But because Mark didn’t like memorials or testimonials, Judy, Beth, and Sarah thought a celebration would be more in keeping with his wishes. Several rescue parrots from the San Francisco flock will make an appearance, and a new project to publish Mark’s book, STREET SONG, will be launched at this screening.
Mark Bittner was born and raised in southwestern Washington State. His ambition as a teenager was to be a Great Novelist, but Mark was alarmed by the uniformly miserable fates of all the writers whom he loved. So, he decided to pursue a career in music instead. After hitchhiking through Europe in search of experience, he moved to San Francisco determined to sink or swim as a poet-singer-songwriter. He sank. Completely bereft, he turned to spiritual seeking and ended up on the street where he spent the next 14 years. Ultimately his search led him to the wild parrot flock, which, in turn, led him back to writing, and his first book: THE WILD PARROTS OF TELEGRAPH HILL. The hardcover edition, published by Random House, was a NY Times bestseller.
In the spring of 2023, the San Francisco Chronicle hosted a contest to pick the City’s “Official Animal.” In a hotly contested battle over four rounds of voting, the maverick Wild Parrots beat the corporate tourism Sea Lions of Pier 39 and 15 other species. The official City Ordinance took effect in August 2023.
