Artoo-Detoo: What imitating a Star Wars droid reveals on allospecific vocal imitation in parrots and starlings

Artoo-Detoo: What imitating a Star Wars droid reveals on allospecific vocal imitation in parrots and starlings | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Artoo-Detoo: What imitating a Star Wars droid reveals on allospecific vocal imitation in parrots and starlings Nick Dam, Henkjan Honing, Michelle Spierings This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-5924965/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 06 Nov, 2025 Read the published version in Scientific Reports → Version 1 posted 10 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Vocal production learning is a remarkable ability, exclusively present in a few mammalian species and three bird clades. Besides learning conspecific vocalizations, vocal production can also lead to integration of allospecific sounds in an animals’ repertoire. While parrots and songbirds are well known for their allospecific imitation abilities, structural differences in imitation accuracy across species remain unclear. This study compared nine parrot species and European starlings on their ability to imitate monophonic and multiphonic sounds produced by the Star Wars droid R2-D2. These complex synthesizer sounds allow for a strong comparative analysis with the same spectral complexity imitated by multiple species. Our results show that starlings have a higher accuracy when imitating multiphonic sounds than parrots. However, both groups performed equally well when imitating monophonic sounds. Differences in imitation accuracy likely stem from syrinx anatomy rather than perceptual or cognitive disparities. Among parrots, species with smaller brains, such as budgerigars and cockatiels, outperformed larger-brained African greys and amazon parrots in monophonic sound imitation. Our study highlights the great potential of citizen science for expanding data collection beyond traditional studies and sheds light on the evolution of communication complexity in vocal learners. Biological sciences/Evolution Biological sciences/Evolution/Mimicry Biological sciences/Zoology/Animal behaviour Biological sciences/Ecology/Behavioural ecology R2-D2 allospecific imitation vocal learning biphonation multiphonic and monophonic sounds comparative studies Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files SIScienctificreports.pdf Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 06 Nov, 2025 Read the published version in Scientific Reports → Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 01 May, 2025 Reviews received at journal 01 Mar, 2025 Reviews received at journal 24 Feb, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 16 Feb, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 12 Feb, 2025 Reviewers invited by journal 09 Feb, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 30 Jan, 2025 Editor invited by journal 30 Jan, 2025 Submission checks completed at journal 30 Jan, 2025 First submitted to journal 29 Jan, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. 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