{"id":127664,"date":"2025-11-07T23:05:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T23:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/127664\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T23:05:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T23:05:09","slug":"bird-or-droid-starlings-nail-r2-d2-beeps-and-boops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/127664\/","title":{"rendered":"Bird or droid? Starlings nail R2-D2 beeps and boops."},"content":{"rendered":"

Songbirds<\/a> like parrots<\/a> and parakeets might be well known for squeaking out embarrassing one-liners<\/a> and certain four-letter words<\/a>, but those aren\u2019t the only sounds they can mimic. Birds have been observed copying dog barks<\/a>, car alarms<\/a>, and even chainsaws<\/a>. There\u2019s also no shortage of online videos showing particularly adept birds imitating possibly the world\u2019s most famous robot: R2-D2. But it turns out some species are better equipped to copy the Star Wars droid\u2019s<\/a> high-pitched beeps and boops than others. The findings are detailed in a paper recently published in Scientific Reports<\/a><\/p>\n

Researchers from the University of Amsterdam and Leiden University in The Netherlands analyzed a trove of volunteer submitted videos showing various songbirds attempting to imitate the R2-D2\u2019s signature sounds. They specifically compared the results among nine different parrot and European starling species.<\/p>\n

While most people might immediately associate parrots with vocal mimicry, the starlings in the study actually performed much better, thanks to a uniquely shaped vocal organ that allows them to produce two tones simultaneously. Interestingly, larger brain size, whether in parrots or starlings, also didn\u2019t appear to translate into better mimicry ability.<\/p>\n

When it comes to copying R2-D2, the best bet seems to be small birds with small brains<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Training birds to beep, whistle, and bloop<\/p>\n

A subset of eccentric bird owners have been trying to teach their feathered friends to reenact Star Wars scenes<\/a> for years. YouTube<\/a> and Instagram are full of clips showing starlings and parrots attempting to mimic the droid\u2019s robotic sounds, albeit with varying degrees of success. There are even a handful of videos, some with over one million views<\/a>, created specifically to help train birds to perfect the impression.<\/p>\n

For their experiment, the researchers analyzed a total of 115 videos submitted to the citizen science website The Bird Singalong Project<\/a>. The study analyzed examples where different bird species successfully mimicked both monophonic (single-tone) and multiphonic (multiple-tone) sounds.<\/p>\n

For context, R2-D2\u2019s \u201cvoice\u201d in the Star Wars films was created by sound designer Ben Burtt, using a \u201cring modulator\u201d on an ARP 2600 modular synthesizer. The modulator combines multiple audio input signals and merges them to create a multitonal output. The result: the chaotic crescendos of sound that R2-D2 makes when it\u2019s startled or stressed. R2-D2, in other words, can produce both monophonic and multiphonic sounds.<\/p>\n

As far as the birds are concerned, differences in their anatomy determined which types of robot sounds they could imitate. None of the parrot species analyzed were able to replicate the droid\u2019s multiphonic sounds. Like humans, parrots have a vocal organ shaped in a way that allows them to produce only one tone at a time. By contrast, starlings have vocal organs with two sound sources, giving them the physical ability to mimic R2-D2\u2019s more complex, multi-tonal sounds.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The bird research summarized in an infographic. Image: Nick Dam (Leiden University), Henkjan Honing (university of Amsterdam) & Michelle Spierings (Leiden University)<\/p>\n

While the parrots weren\u2019t able to fully replicate R2-D2\u2019s vocabulary, they could imitate some of the robot\u2019s simpler, single-toned beeps and boops. Even then though, some parrots fared better than others. Overall, the study found that smaller parrot species, like budgerigars and cockatiels, mimicked the droid\u2019s simple sounds more accurately than larger species like African greys and Amazon parrots.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our study we found that parrots with larger brains, and also relatively large shell nuclei, imitated monophonic sounds significantly less accurately than budgerigars and cockatiels that have smaller shell regions and larger core regions,\u201d the researchers wrote<\/a>. \u201cParrots with smaller brains, however, have a smaller repertoire of imitated sounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related: [We finally know how parrots \u2018talk\u2019<\/a>]<\/p>\n

When it comes to speech \u2018bird brain\u2019 isn\u2019t an insult<\/p>\n

Recent studies have shed new light on how songbirds are able to learn phrases and copy sounds with such high levels of accuracy. One study published earlier this year in Nature<\/a>, analyzed the brain regions of parakeets while they were vocalizing, and found surprising similarities to the neural regions that controls speech in humans<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Other research shows that parrots and macaws even possess the capability to communicate with each other remotely over video calls<\/a>. Some of these birds can amass vocabularies that rival that of many toddlers. Puck, a pet budgerigar that died in 1994, reportedly learned a shocking 1,728 words<\/a>.<\/p>\n