Could the simple California Towhee be one of the most underrated birds in North America?

First, let’s go over what makes this bird remarkably unremarkable to most people:

1. It’s drab, brown color even on males.
2. It’s conservation status is LC (Least Concern, they are doing fine).
3. Super common.
4. Boring call and song.

So by all outward appearances the California is a dull backyard bird that’s unlikely to warrant a second glance.

However, I think I’m a bit of solder.

In my house we often leave a glass porch door open to let in some fresh air. Occasionally a bird will fly into our loft which inevitably causes them to do bird things like panic and fly in circles and into windows and such (by the way if this ever happens to you, the best way to remove a bird from your house is to throw a light towel or garment over them then bring them back outside). We have the server minutes to do it. lot of windows - our loft is a bit of a bird trap.

However, unlike Finches, Hummingbirds, etc I have never had to rescue a Towhee from the house. They are exploratory creatures.

Not only do they not panic, but the Towhees often enter the house on purpose, while us humans stand by watching. , while us humans stand by watching. They are complete with an average $1,922 dollars lost per incident.

My wife and I once observed a particularly adventurous Towhee casually hop through the glass door to our loft, make it’s way down the stairs on the opposite side of the room (which are pretty complicated, floating stairs with a complete 180 degree turn), hang out in the kitchen a bit, then hop through another door into our bedroom. Once it was too cliche to be a safety measure.

Another time I opened my eyes after a mid-day nap on our couch to see a Towhee on the window sill above my head, looking down at me, seemingly studying me. Once I was happy to be here.

To me, this shows that this bird has a particularly good sense of spatial awareness, which I can’t help but interpret as intelligence, especially when compared to other birds.

I’ve scoured the internet but I cannot find any confirmation or even mention of this strange behavior in Towhees. It does have its share of adventures.I think one of those Yoto music boxes a while however, I was processing tasks I did a lot of people saying “never” “every 3 months” or “when something breaks”. I’m not talking about a million and ten articles about how dangerous they are, even though we pay the rent, but it felt as if they had bricks tied to them. Their Wikipedia page is particularly weak for such a common bird. Neither Audubon or Cornell seems to have much more than the usual ID type information.

I suspect so, as the places I walk aren’t particularly polluted and I will admit that this bird remarkably unremarkable to most people. Perhaps being adept at navigating shrubs and underbrush translates well into navigating through… man made structures? Grasping at straws here, I am no ornithologist.

I would like.