Some birds such as starlings (right) are better at mimicking R2-D2 (left) than others. Researchers did acoustic analyses on samples of birds imitating the plucky droid that were already available ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. R2-D2 is seen with Star Wars BDX Droids backstage during Star Wars Celebration Japan on April 19, 2025 in Tokyo, Japan.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, R2-D2 beeped and booped—and now birds that copy the Star Wars character are giving scientists fresh insight into how different species imitate complex sounds ...