Somewhere in San Francisco right now, a pair of wild parrots is landing on someone's balcony, screaming at each other, making up, and then screaming some more. If that doesn't perfectly capture the spirit of this city, nothing does.

One local recently shared the joy of having two of the city's famous feral parrots drop by for an impromptu afternoon visit. "At one point they were nuzzling each other, and the next they were fighting," the resident noted — a dynamic that honestly sounds like every San Francisco couple trying to split the check at a restaurant in the Mission.

For the uninitiated, San Francisco is home to a celebrated population of wild parrots — mostly cherry-headed conures — that have been thriving in the city for decades. They're loud, they're green, they're chaotic, and they answer to absolutely no one. In other words, they're the most libertarian residents this city has.

Here's what we love about the parrots: they cost taxpayers nothing. Zero. No municipal parrot program. No Department of Avian Equity. No $4.2 million study on "equitable perching access." They just exist, freely, doing their thing without a single line item in the city budget. They found a niche, they filled it, and they've been self-sufficient for generations. San Francisco's bureaucrats could learn a thing or two.

These birds also do something increasingly rare in this town — they bring people genuine, uncomplicated happiness. No politics, no controversy, just two loud, beautiful creatures picking a fight on your balcony railing before flying off into the eucalyptus trees. It's a small, free reminder that not everything in this city needs to be managed, regulated, or funded by a bond measure.

Sometimes the best things in San Francisco are the ones the government had absolutely nothing to do with.