[dataset] Host-specific vocal similarity in fledgling Levaillant’s Cuckoos and babblers in West Africa

Audio and video recordings of Levaillant’s cuckoo and host fledglings reared by Blackcap Babblers (Turdoides reinwardtii) and Brown Babblers (Turdoides plebejus) in The Gambia were collected or curated by Clive R. Barlow between 2006 and 2025. Recordings of one Arrow-marked Babbler cuckoo and two host fledglings associated were provided by Derek Engelbrecht and Isaac Kilusu, some previously published (Derek Engelbrecht/Macaulay Library, Cornell Lab: ML617040028, ML617040040, ML617040041, ML617040048; Isaac Kilusu: XC819163, www.xeno-canto.org/819163; XC819164, www.xeno-canto.org/819164). We also included a unique recording of a Levaillant’s cuckoo fledgling begging and being fed by a Kurrichane Thrush (Turdus libonyana) in South Africa (Tony Archer, XC418749, www.xeno-canto.org/418749). No recordings of Kurrichane Thrush fledgling calls were available, but we included fledgling begging calls of the closely related African Thrush (Turdus pelios) recorded by CRB in The Gambia.

This study investigated the presence of vocal mimicry in Levaillant’s cuckoos. The dataset contains acoustic variables automatically extracted with Avisoft SASLab (see “Steps to reproduce”), including call duration, and the mean and standard deviation of frequency bandwidth, entropy (energy dispersion across frequencies—low in pure tones, high in broadband calls), and the first and third frequency quartiles of the energy distribution (robust indicators of low and high frequency limits). Acoustic analyses and classification methods revealed that cuckoos reared by their primary host, the Brown Babbler (Turdoides plebejus), produced non food-transfer begging calls closely resembling those of host fledglings. By contrast, cuckoos raised by secondary hosts, including Blackcap Babblers (T. reinwardtii), showed little or no vocal similarity.