Independent filmmaker zooms in on pelicans

The woman who brought world fame to San Francisco's wild parrots has turned her camera lens to another feathered favorite of the Bay Area: brown pelicans.

Judy Irving's first major work since the 2005 hit documentary "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill" is an 80-minute paean to the pterodactyl-like seabirds that swoop and soar along the bay shoreline.

"Pelican Dreams," slated for release next month, follows the exploits of Gigi, a 4-month-old pelican who stopped for a rest on the Golden Gate Bridge one afternoon in 2008, caused a massive traffic jam and became a star of YouTube. The bird was captured by an intrepid tow truck driver and delivered to International Bird Rescue in Fairfield for rehabilitation.

Irving spent six years on the project, charting the migration of Gigi and her cohorts from Baja California to the Columbia River, with plenty of stops around San Francisco Bay to fuel up on sardines.

What she discovered is that brown pelicans, though they're among the hardiest of species, are not faring well. Gigi was starving when she alighted on the bridge; insufficient fish supplies have left thousands of brown pelicans emaciated and their breeding levels close to zero for the past five years.

"I didn't set out to do an investigation, but the more I got into it the more I realized they really are in trouble," Irving said.

Brown pelicans were nearly extinct a few decades ago, due to the pesticide DDT, and were listed as endangered in 1970. But after DDT was banned, the pelican population rebounded, and in 2009 the bird was removed from the list.

Brown pelicans, with their 7-foot wingspan, stocky bodies and long beaks, are familiar sights around the bay. They're often seen at Baker Beach, the Oakland Estuary, Point Bonita and other gusty spots, cruising with military precision just above the water or dive-bombing for fish. Sometimes they'll join in a squadron and coast above the shore, graceful in the wind.

But after five consecutive years of what scientists call "reproductive failure," no one's sure what the future looks like for the majestic birds.

"That kind of breeding failure - that's a concern for everyone," said Anna Weinstein, seabird and marine program director for Audubon California. "Seabirds are designed to withstand bad years, but this is definitely cause for alarm."

The sardine population along the West Coast is at its lowest level since the 1950s, due in part to overfishing and changes in the ocean temperature, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

As a result, brown pelicans, sea lions and other species that rely on the tiny, oily fish are starving.

Irving's film addresses the threats facing brown pelicans, but it generally takes an optimistic view. Like the parrot movie, Irving's study of brown pelicans is affectionate, at times humorous and reveals a sense of wonder and awe at the birds' simple beauty.

And she did it all without special effects or staging. When viewers see pelican chicks fledge the nest, it's because Irving sat in front of a tripod all day, every day, for weeks waiting to capture the moment on film.

"You have to focus all the time. You can't take your eyes off the camera," she said. "But it forces you to slow down and clear your brain of all the chatter, and just look. You slow your pace to the pace of the pelicans."

The most technically challenging part of the project was filming the birds in flight, she said. Focusing the camera as the birds zoom at rapidly shifting heights and distances is hard to do sometimes without falling over, she said.

Her goal was to bring viewers an appreciation of the birds, whom she describes in the movie as "flying dinosaurs. ... I love how graceful they are ... and then how clumsy."

"I didn't want to make a downer movie," she said. "These birds are so resilient. They've been around 30 million years. Unless we really screw things up, they'll be around a lot longer."

Carolyn Jones is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: carolynjones@sfchronicle.com