Parrots of Ferry Park (also Telegraph Hill). These are the feral parrots documented in the indi movie The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, by Judy Irving. Image by TorroidAccording to Pliny’s “Natural History,” a raven who hailed the emperor Tiberius every morning became such a local hero that he was granted a funeral procession through the streets of Rome. In September 2007, an African gray parrot named Alex went out in even grander style. Obituaries and articles about the bird appeared in publications around the world, including The New York Times. But even before Alex was found dead in his cage at Brandeis University in Massachusetts, he had made his literary mark with a walk-on part in a novel, “Oryx and Crake,” by Margaret Atwood. Alex thereby joined the venerable, bizarre and surprisingly large club of talking parrots in literature.