Demoiselle Crane vs Great Tit
Anthropoides virgo compared with Parus major
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Attribute | Demoiselle Crane | Great Tit |
|---|---|---|
| Scientific Name | Anthropoides virgo | Parus major |
| Order | Gruiformes | Passeriformes |
| Family | Gruidae | Paridae |
| Conservation Status | Least Concern | Least Concern |
| Length | 90.0 cm (35.4 in) | 14.0 cm (5.5 in) |
| Wingspan | 175.0 cm (68.9 in) | 24.0 cm (9.4 in) |
| Weight | 2500.0 g (88.18 oz) | 18.0 g (0.63 oz) |
| Diet | Seeds, grasses, insects, snails, worms, and small vertebrates. Forages in grasslands and agricultural fields. | Insects and spiders in summer, seeds and nuts in winter. A frequent and dominant visitor … |
| Clutch Size | 2 | 3-18 |
| Population Trend | — | — |
Size Comparison
Habitat Comparison
Demoiselle Crane
Dry grasslands, savannas, and semi-desert. Nests on the ground in open country, often near water. Winters in agricultural fields.
Great Tit
Deciduous and mixed woodland, parks, gardens, and hedgerows. Readily uses nest boxes. Highly adaptable to human environments.
Song & Call Comparison
Demoiselle Crane
A high-pitched, bugling 'karr-r-r' in flight. Also gives softer clucking and purring contact calls. Migrating flocks produce a continuous musical babbling audible from great distance.
Great Tit
A repetitive, teacher-teacher 'tee-cher, tee-cher, tee-cher'. Also gives ringing 'pink-pink' alarm. Highly versatile singer; over 40 song variants recorded from a single male.
Geographic Range & Migration
Demoiselle Crane
Central Eurasia from the Black Sea to Mongolia and northeastern China. Winters in India and sub-Saharan Africa.
Great Tit
Widespread across Europe and Asia from Britain to Japan, and south to North Africa and Southeast Asia.
Conservation Status
Demoiselle Crane
Great Tit
How to Tell Them Apart
Demoiselle Crane
Pale blue-grey body with a black head, neck, and breast plumes. White ear tufts extend behind the red eyes. Long black tertials drape over the tail.
Short, yellowish-olive bill, shorter than other cranes
Great Tit
Blue-black head with white cheeks. Olive-green back, yellow underparts with a broad black central stripe. White wing bar and blue-grey tail.
Short, stout, dark bill
About These Birds
Demoiselle Crane
The demoiselle crane is the smallest crane species but undertakes one of the most grueling migrations, crossing the Himalayas at altitudes over 8,000 meters to reach wintering grounds in India. Named for its elegant appearance by Marie Antoinette, it is the second most abundant crane species in the world.
Great Tit
The great tit is the largest European tit and one of the most studied wild birds in the world. Research at Wytham Woods in Oxford has monitored great tit populations since the 1940s, contributing enormously to ecology and evolution. These innovative birds famously learned to open milk bottle tops in 20th-century Britain.