cardinal

The other odd thing about this guy, is that he rarely raises his crest like the other cardinals.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. The bird is an adult. At least four years old. I have seen a summer tanager in our area, and I thought maybe our backyard friend was a tanager, but Ashley, you are right. His shape is wrong for a tanager. Whatever he is, he is truly beautiful.

I agree with Ashley - this is just an unusual male cardinal. Occasionally males will lack the dark mask.

He has another spotting of this bird with more pictures. He says it has been coming to his feeder for years, making it an adult, and you can see the crest. Overall shape is way wrong for a Tanager, and bill is all wrong too

Could it be a summer tanager? They are more of this orangey-red. (I couldn't tell from your pic if your bird had a crest.. that branch was just in exactly the wrong place!) Beak seemed a bit on the thin and orangey side for a cardinal too. Just a suggestion. I'll try to zoom in a bit better and see.

It could be an immature male that hasn't developed the black color yet.

This is a male, and he seems to be lacking the black pigment on the face. I don't think this happens during molting, I think yours is just an unusual individual, but I would let other people give their opinion too :)