It has always amused me that the tourists to the US that I’ve spoken to are often very excited to see raccoons, and disappointed if they don’t see them before they leave.
Some others I’ve noticed on the east coast of the US are blue jays and cardinals. Boy, do people get excited about those if they’ve never seen them before! Very pretty birds of course, just very easy to get used to and see as uninteresting as well.
Black squirrels. They aren’t very many if any at all in the south and when family/friends come to visit it blows their mind seeing them.
In DC, the only black squirrels we saw were around the Saudi embassy and we joked about them being robotic spies.
When we first moved to Virginia Beach/Hampton Roads, VA, my mom almost wrecked the car when she saw a group of black squirrels. We’re not sure why it’s so fun to see them, they’re just squirrels that are black, but it’s always a treat.
Plenty of goth squirrels in parts of the Bay Area, California too.
In mid to southern Wisconsin it’s your average brown squirrel…but head to the north woods and black squirrels everywhere. I agree with ur family/friends…they’re doubly cute!
I saw them in New York! Brilliant!