5 Birds That Should Have Been Cast As R2-D2
Celebrate the new Star Wars movie by listening to some birds that belong in a galaxy far, far away.
Everyone's favorite little droid R2-D2 is making a comeback today in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (yay). Behind the scenes, the beloveddroid's sounds are made by sound-mixing some baby gurgling into an adorablerobotic voice, sound designer .But here at APP, we think that there are plenty of avian candidates who could have been used as inspiration (hey, it's not that far of a stretch—birds were the voice actors behind many of the dinosaursounds in Jurassic World).
Check out these five aspiring avian robots—you may start to wonder if these birds have been binging on oldStar Warsfilms, too.
The Australian Magpie
It’s a car alarm;it’s a barking dog;it’s R2-D2! Nope, it’s actually an Australian Magpie. This eclectic songbird uses a variety of complex calls, and can mimic over 35 species of birds, as well as other animals, including dogs and horses.
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The Gray Catbird
This common yard birdmight be light years away from “droidom” (the droid equivalent of stardom), but with its squeaky sequences it definitely has some R2 qualities. Thesebirds can belt it out for 10 minutes at a time, andmales use their high-pitched mew to mark their territory.
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The Australian Lyrebird
The magpie’s partner in mime, the , is also quite the performer and can copy practically any sound it comes across, fromcamera shutters tochainsaws. It can imitate up to 20 other species so perfectly that even the birds being copied are fooled.Theselong-tailed artists use their vocaltalents mostly for courtship, but their skills also double as anR2-D2 tribute—with afew lightsabers thrown infor effect.
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The Bobolink
This songbird’s melody is almost as strange as its name and its mohawk. The Bobolink can make a series of gurgling and bubbling noises that share a closeresemblance to thefeisty little robot from Naboo. These funny callsare used to entice the ladies during showdowns between breeding males(yes, mating is the point of most bird songs).
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Bluey, the Australian Parakeet
Okay, this bird was actually trained in the ways of R2-D2.Videos of Bluey, the pet Australian parakeet, first hit theinternet in 2013. The bird’s owner played some classic R2 sounds on YouTube, and a few days later, Bluey was boo-boo-beep-beeping along. The blue-chested, white-headed bird also kind of lookslike the droid, so he's suited upfor Hollywood already.
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