A Pine Siskin on a coned pine branch, in the restrained palette of John James Audubon’s Birds of America: cream ground, soft green needles, the streaked brown body broken by a single bar of yellow in the wing.

Spinus pinus travels in winter flocks with goldfinches and confuses everyone, a streaky brown bird that looks like nothing until it opens a wing. The fine, sharp bill and heavy streaking settle it.