They weren’t the bird brain they were billed as. Once seen as synonymous with stupidity, the dodo bird was actually not as dumb as depicted — and could’ve been as smart as a modern pigeon. 4 The dodo bird is smarter than we all gave it credit for. 4 A dodo bird at the birds exhibition room at the Natural History Museum in London, England. “In other words, there is no evidence the dodo was less intelligent than any other pigeon,” the researchers wrote.