The acclaimed documentary "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill: A Love Story…With Wings" tells the story of Mark Bittner, a man who has spent the last decade of his life studying, feeding, caring for and protecting a flock of over 200 birds in San Francisco. The film chronicles the life, loves and complex relationships the parrots share with one another and their friendship with Bittner.

Sadly, the birds' fame did not prevent John Cowen, an absentee North Beach landowner, from cutting down on Halloween the third of five Monterey cypress trees that comprise a key part of the parrots' habitat near the Greenwich Steps. Cowen and the other two owners of 223 Greenwich now want to fell the two remaining trees. If this happens, the birds will no longer have a secure perch from which to watch for hawks before swooping down to feed from Bittner's hand, endangering their safety and closing off an important connection with their caretaker.

Cowen claims that the trees are an insurance liability. However, four tree experts (two arborists and two trimmers) have reported in writing that the cypresses can be safely pruned and maintained. Concerned neighbors have even offered to pay for liability insurance, pruning, monitoring, maintenance, and planting of succession trees, and expressed an interest in purchasing the lot to preserve the cypresses.