"Maybe the Lyre Bird could do it, but us parrots? No way," she said.
The macaw, who has inhabited the aviary since being bred in captivity 10 years ago, is a member of a taxonomic order famous for its skill at mimicking sounds, especially human speech. Nevertheless, Sophie remains agog at the Times's proficiency, saying that the newspaper's reporters outdo macaws, myna birds, and other avian species known for imitative abilities when those correspondents take Palestinian accusations of Israeli crimes and simply reprint them, with no real attempt at verifying them or addressing the myriad contradictions, untruths, and inherent bias in their sources.
Monday morning saw Sophie and her avian colleagues again shown up by the New York Times, which featured prominently in its online edition an article composed almost entirely of the accusations of a 17-year-old Palestinian who claimed Israeli soldiers had used him as a human shield. The reporters, bureau chief Jodi Rudoren and Palestinian activist Fares Akram, took pains to detail even the most unlikely charges, including those that could easily be verified if anyone had bothered to check, such as photographs of injuries that would inevitably result from the treatment the boy described.
"I'm not sure we parrots can compete with that," said an awestruck Sophie, to many nods and affirmative grunts from the other birds. "Maybe the Lyre Bird could do it, but us parrots? No way," she said, referring to an Australian bird famous for its ability to flawlessly reproduce almost any sound. She added that she was especially taken by the article's reliance on a single ultimate source for the information, an organization that specifically massages its data to conform with preconceived notions of Israeli guilt and malfeasance.
Edgar, a grey parrot, disagreed, saying that not even the vaunted lyre bird could compete, since that bird could only reproduce the source's sound, whereas the New York Times article goes beyond mere parroting and adds both a dismissive tone to reports of Israeli counterclaims and specifically fails to explain why a story that "could not be independently verified," as the reporters themselves say, should receive such prominent attention in the absence of such verification.
"We birds, as a class, have been outclassed," pronounced Edgar.