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76
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60
9
17
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37
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53
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66
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45
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61
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55
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43
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66
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29
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23
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80
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61
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39
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30
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34
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60
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32
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27
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41
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39
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46
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73
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78
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55
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66
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69
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58
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47
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66
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34
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33
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54
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67
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51
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42
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28
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63
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86
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35
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48
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30
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53
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24
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83
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33
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45
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55
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47
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96
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35
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28
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88
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71
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67
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28
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73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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58
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96
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56
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72
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39
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78
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61
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66
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xx
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58
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72
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48
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73
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62
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55
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76
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86
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13
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70
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35
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71
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66
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51
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xx
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76
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35
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26
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57
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45
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81
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70
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45
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xx
Carriers
55
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57
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62
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65
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69
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59
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44
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82
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75
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82
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67
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xx
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71
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70
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24
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85
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55
Endgame
xx
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xx
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xx
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56
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62
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74
Flame & Citron
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
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28
Free Style
xx
From Mexico with Love
50
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25
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50
Give Me Your Hand
58
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72
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89
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52
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64
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81
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xx
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63
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73
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xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
74
Humpday
94
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29
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16
If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75
In Search of Beethoven
83
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61
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42
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70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
19
Labor Day
xx
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41
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41
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66
Liverpool
34
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80
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83
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xx
Ministers, The
59
More Than a Game
67
Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
xx
Mystery Team
48
New York, I Love You
73
Night and Day
66
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47
Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34
Other Man, The
xx
Painter Sam Francis, The
54
Paper Heart
xx
Paradise
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
44
Peter and Vandy
35
Play the Game
77
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx
Pretty Ugly People
65
Providence Effect, The
76
Rembrandt's J'accuse
69
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79
Serious Man, A
40
Shrink
61
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77
Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx
Skiptracers
46
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39
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89
Still Walking![]()
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
55
Storm
65
Tetro
70
That Evening Sun
72
Thirst
xx
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61
Trucker
xx
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83
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66
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66
Unmistaken Child
70
Visual Acoustics
55
Walt & El Grupo
67
Way We Get By, The
69
We Live in Public
64
Wedding Song, The
64
Where is Where?
xx
White on Rice
74
Woman in Berlin, A
69
World's Greatest Dad
70
Yes Men Fix the World
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx
You, the Living
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, The

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 27 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 30 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Documentary
Written by:
Directed by: Judy Irving
Release Date:
Theatrical: February 11, 2005
DVD: December 27, 2005
Running Time: 83 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: Rated G
Starring Mark Bittner
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, 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. (Shadow Distribution)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Staff (Not credited)
It's a special, strangely soothing movie experience that wonderfully celebrates the intricate diversity of life on Earth and the profound emotional bond that can exist between man and beast.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
The film is both wise and tender in its treatment of relationships -- between birds, between people, and between birds and people.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Melissa Levine
Mostly, Wild Parrots is a great, important, and unforgettable movie.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
One of the most beautiful and endearing nature films you've ever seen, despite being filmed almost entirely within a major metropolis, and a love story that will repeatedly reduce you to tears.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman
Well-considered, beautifully made, and often gripping in its narrative, the film epitomizes the best the documentary format can offer.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Robert K. Elder
The kind of well-crafted, character-driven work that wows regional film festival crowds and public television audiences but seldom gets seen outside those circles.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
Judy Irving's terrific documentary 'The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill is ostensibly about birds, but only in the way that a game of Scrabble is about tiles.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
In watching the birds and the man with an affectionate, curious eye, the filmmaker builds a story of surprising emotional resonance.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
The mellow, serendipitous The Parrots of Telegraph Hill is here to show you just how magical happenstance can be.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
This is a charmfest of a movie, for bird lovers and non-bird lovers alike.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Ann Hornaday
Quite simply, a beautiful film, in both form and content.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray
The movie winds its way artfully from a straight animal study to something more profound. It's hard to shake the film's astonishing final thoughts and shots, as Bittner nervously contemplates parrot eggs while hawks circle overhead.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Sura Wood
Genuinely sweet, beautifully constructed documentary.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
It is not the film you think it is going to be. You walk in expecting some kind of North Beach weirdo and his wild-eyed parrot theories, and you walk out still feeling a little melancholy over the plight of Connor.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
A cornball charmer of a film with some beautiful birds and homespun wisdom.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Marta Barber
The documentary also has a story to tell, and as such it builds up its drama.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Walter Addiego
In traditional stories, it's saints, madmen and children who befriend wild animals. Mark Bittner, who pals around with feral creatures in the amiable documentary The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, is just as much an outsider, though of a different sort.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Lovely to look at, if not very deep in its thinking about relations between humans and their animal friends.
Read Full Review >New York Post Russell Scott Smith
In the charming new documentary The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, we learn all about the tragedy and comedy of being a bird on the loose in San Francisco.
Read Full Review >Variety Dennis Harvey
A charming look at the mildly eccentric man who gained modest feature-page celebrity for his familiarity with San Francisco's tropical parrot flock.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Ed Park
Several sharp jolts give the doc its dramatic shape, and one episode in particular, caught with a neighbor's lens, will make you gasp with grief.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
In Ms. Irving's affectionate film, Mr. Bittner is more of a sage than a deadbeat.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
A loving, dopey documentary about the bird man of a place with a view of Alcatraz.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Though Bittner's slacker charm may not be to all tastes, the parrots are natural-born scene-stealers with more than enough charm to seduce the most dubious viewer.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 9.3 (out of 10) based on 30 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Mark K. gave it an8:
A nice documentary! Try to push March of the Penguins out for your memory, and you will enjoy it more.
Connie H. gave it a10:
Being the owner of a Blue Crowned and White Eyed conure this movie moved me to tears. It showed the individual personalities of each one of these birds. They are so similar to human being in that they love their mates and nuture their young. They truly are intelligent, magnificient creatures.
L. Maier gave it a10:
This movie gives the truest human response to our species as having 'dominion over the animals.' We are here to nuture, to support and to commune with our neighbors of this earth. And, as one who has recently inherited and has been getting to know a parrot, I know Mark knows the deeply gentle spirituality of this species, and the great (and hidden) gift they are to this world.
Chad S. gave it a7:
"The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill" might've benefited by a word or two by those "Draconian enviromentalists". We love the pretty birds, but if they're doing harm to the native bird population, do you just ignore it because the subject of this sometimes engaging documentary is a nice guy. There's a tremendous irony in Mark Bittner's acknowledgment of the more common local birds towards the end of the film, because it's like he's looking back on his previous incarnation as a "dharma bum", embodied by these birds who blend into the San Francisco landscape without notice. Like the birds, Bittner was anonymous. Now he's more like a parrot. Even though his observations of the native birds plays like the filmmaker's last-ditch effort to appease the conservationists, it doesn't come close to hurting the inspiring human interest story of a Henry Darger-type getting a new lease in life.
Hugh S. gave it a10:
Excellent in every way. We have a 20 year old rescued Cherry Head so we could appreciate many of the finer nuances.
James D. gave it a10:
Great film about interacting with animals and each other. Relates information about a world we walk past every day without really seeing. All the hallmarks of great filmmaking...a story told with drama, comedy and tragedy.
Rick H. gave it a10:
One of the best films I've seen all year. At least as good as winged migration.
