Sometimes the most ordinary birds are the most beautiful, like this American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis) that I spotted earlier this month at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. The colors of this goldfinch are certainly more subdued than during breeding season, but I like the way that the yellow serves as an accent color rather than covering the bird’s entire body.
For contrast, I am including a photo from early autumn of another goldfinch at another location. Some may prefer the bright colors of the breeding plumage, while other may find it to be too gaudy and prefer the more subdued non-breeding plumage. Is one more beautiful than the other? For me, they are both beautiful, albeit in different ways. There is an inherent contradiction in beauty—sometimes it seems almost universal, but most often it is deeply subjective, i.e. “in the eyes of the beholder.”
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
They’re lovely birds either way, and different to ours (not that ours are native) but they’re also very pretty and cute. Jodi at The Creative Life In Between also posted a goldfinch tonight with a wonderful poem.
Thanks for the tip on Jodi’s blog–I checked it out and decided to subscribe to it. In case you were curious, I was thinking about your blog as I contemplated the concept of beauty in the last section of today’s posting and considered some of the inherent contradictions of beauty.
Thanks for sharing that because it was after midnight when I read your post last night and my mind was feeling dull! It was exciting for me to read that you were thinking about my blog while contemplating the concept of beauty and this morning I’m enjoying thinking about the contradiction you’ve described – what you’ve observed above is so true, and very interesting!