Pyrrhuloxia

Anybody know what that word means?  Let’s see: the first 3 letters have me thinking it has something to do with fire, as in pyromaniac.  Then there’s ‘ox’ which smacks of oxygen, and ‘ia’ a suffix often used in naming an illness (pneumonia) or phobia (claustrophobia).  So, my guess would be ‘a person with a deep fear of suffocating in a fire’.  Second guess: a person who actually died from suffocation in a fire.  What’s your guess?
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My guesses are way off.  It’s a bird.  A very attractive bird and a member of the cardinal family, it is light gray with rosy-red chest, wings and crest (male).  Females are, of course, duller, as females tend to be.  Please don’t be offended, readers of the female persuasion; the female=dull thing only applies to critters.  Everyone knows homo-sapiens are an anomaly when it comes to coloration: females are into gaudy, men aren’t.  Sure, there are notable exceptions, Elton John being the poster child.  I’ve crossed paths with the occasional dull female, also, and suspect they’re more numerous than their male counterparts.
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I saw my first pyr-whatever yesterday in Patagonia Lake State Park, where we’re spending the first 2 nights of 6-nighter RV trip.  Doug & Jan, Trish’s brother and sister in law, are traveling with us; they have a 5^th wheel RV.  Also saw a northern cardinal, which, if the name is meaningful, is hopelessly lost.  We’re only a few miles from the Mexican border, can’t get more southern than this.  In truth, said cardinal’s habitat includes most of the eastern US, extending into Canada - plus a small area in the southwestern US.
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Getting back to the pyr-bird and its cousins, I must protest the naming thereof.  First, the pyrrhuloxia: it’s downright cruel to hang a handle like that on a poor innocent bird.  Then there’s the northern cardinal.  One assumes it’s called northern to distinguish it from its relative, the southern cardinal.  But no, there is no such bird; no western or eastern cardinals either.  Another family member is the American goldfinch.  But - is there an un-American goldfinch?  No.  Who named these birds?  Did the naming expedition have marching orders to ignore all logic and common sense?  What say we start the Occupy Audubon movement and get this naming mess cleaned up?