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Machu Picchu

(Also informally known as "Peach") The scarlet macaw who lives with Tom Swale and Carl Romeo.

Picchu is the YW books' earliest example of the principle that "wizards' pets can get strange". (Until the series is several books along, no one fully realizes quite how strange.) She functions as an oracular, frequently predicting the next day's news while imitating the voice and style of a network anchorman {from the dialogue excerpts in SYWTBAW, especially the signature line "And that's the way it is...", the voice would seem to be that of the eminent US radio and television broadcaster Walter Cronkite). Picchu is fluent in both English and the Speech, and apparently various other languages as well. She occasionally accompanies wizards on errantry for reasons of her own, and is always a source of good (if frequently obscure) advice.