Just call it Birdland by the Bay

THEY may not yet rank with the cable cars and the Golden Gate Bridge, but the wild parrots of San Francisco are becoming a tourist attraction.

“It’s become like a modern San Francisco classic story,” said filmmaker Judy Irving, whose 2005 documentary “The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill” first brought the birds to international attention. “People are nuts about the parrots. They see the film and then they want to see them. They’ve become a tourist attraction.”

Since June and continuing at least through this year, “The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill” screens at 2 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays at the 275-seat Theatre 39 on Pier 39 at Fisherman’s Wharf, at Embarcadero and Beach Street.

Irving’s movie grossed $3.2 million worldwide and played first-run in the Bay Area for seven months. The DVD is sold at many tourist sites, such as the Coit Tower gift shop. It is about a flock of about 200 red-and-green parrots that fly about the hilly city, gathering especially in the trees and backyard gardens along two steep, picturesque hillside stairways: the Filbert and Greenwich steps.

Those stairways, which connect Coit Tower with Sansome Street, were tourist destinations long before the “Wild Parrots” movie.

But the film also highlights aging hippie Mark Bittner, who finds purpose in protecting and caring for the birds. Ultimately, he finds a wife through his interests.

The film’s fans respond to it as a love story as well as a nature documentary. And they want to see the birds that made it all happen.

When I visited Coit Tower earlier this year, I saw the parrots’ drawing power. When squawks announced the arrival of the birds in nearby trees, two couples ran out of the tower with cameras raised. Later, while walking down the Filbert Steps, people with cameras stopped every time they spotted a parrot.

“They are celebrities,” said Laura Schroeder, director of San Francisco Public Library’s City Guides walking tours. Her group offers a free Telegraph Hill hike at 1 p.m. Saturdays year-round. Tours start across from the Marconi Monument at 290 Lombard St.

“People want to see the birds and are interested in that area,” she said. “So they’ve become incorporated into our tour.”

Filmmaker Irving, who lives along the Greenwich Steps, has become used to people stopping her and asking about the parrots. She has met tourists from Asia, Central America and even northern Europe. “There was a Finnish guy who stopped me at one point,” she said.

Although the wild parrots neither roost nor nest along these hillside steps -- they prefer other locations for that, Irving said -- they like the hillside’s trees and gardens for their fruit and protection from hawks. “There are so many tall trees and so much food, it’s where they sit and chat with each other,” she said. “It’s their cafe, so to speak.

“Metaphorically, they’re like the way San Francisco residents like to think of themselves. They’re colorful, feisty, independent, exotic.”

Tickets for “Wild Parrots” screenings are $9.50 for adults and $6.50 for children; senior discounts are available. Call (415) 433-3939 to book or visit www.tix.com.

For more information about San Francisco City Guides tours, visit www.sfcityguides.org or call (415) 557-4266.