Seriously, that's a hard one. There aren't very many red birds common to this area. But maybe it's migrating.
Does it have a heavy black beak (not long, but heavy, like a cardinal)?
You compare it to a female cardinal, but they aren't mostly red. Now that I look, juvenile cardinals have black beaks. Of course, they have tufts.
Summer Tanagers migrate through here, but they don't really have black beaks.
Help me identify a bird:
Reddish bird with a black beak. About the same size as a cardinal and looks a bit like a female cardinal, but not a virginia cardinal. No mohawk and a black beak.