More Than a Pair of Parakeets

Six hundred and seven food-loving, chirping birds are the San Francisco, CA Zoo's newest attraction.

Binowee Landing, a new exhibit at the zoo, is something of a cross between Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" and "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill," says writer Patricia Yollin.

"At the official opening June 8th the birds swooped and soared like an aerial drill team as children thrust 'feed sticks' into the air and the parakeet paparazzi clicked away," she said. "The feeding devices were designed to lure the birds and force some human-avian interaction."

Yollin said visitors encountered 502 green, blue, or yellow grass parakeets, 88 cockatiels, and 17 eastern rosellas, whose red heads and disdain for the feeding process set them apart.

Most of the birds made one tree in the aviary their home base but would alight repeatedly on people's hands, arms, and heads to gorge on the millet treats before taking off in unison like the Blue Angels during Fleet Week, according to a recent article.

Admission to the exhibit costs $2 in addition to regular zoo entry with a feed stick thrown in, according to zoo staff.

Eighteen kindergartners from Sunnyside Elementary School in San Francisco seemed unfazed by all the commotion, the article stated.

"My kids aren't really scaredy-cats," said their teacher, Barry Kauffman in a recent interview.

The aviary was last used several years ago to house lorikeets, according to research.

The visitors included the kindergartners wearing bird masks they'd constructed in class, developmentally disabled adults who had made the feed sticks, and a senior business development manager from the Australian Consulate in San Francisco, zoo staff said.

Although the aviary's new residents were described as Australian birds they've never seen Down Under, research reveals.

Australia also inspired the name of the exhibit, Yollin writes.

The developmentally disabled adults who assembled the feed sticks are from the Janet Pomeroy Center across the street from the zoo, Yollin wrote.

"When we heard how many we had to do we figured we'd be stuck at the center all day," Chad Christensen, assistant supervisor of vocational leisure services told Yollin.

Clients will produce 7,000 sticks a week and receive three cents for each one which will in turn sell for $1 apiece at the zoo, according to Christensen.