Great Tit vs Hoopoe
Parus major compared with Upupa epops
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Attribute | Great Tit | Hoopoe |
|---|---|---|
| Scientific Name | Parus major | Upupa epops |
| Order | Passeriformes | Bucerotiformes |
| Family | Paridae | Upupidae |
| Conservation Status | Least Concern | Least Concern |
| Length | 14.0 cm (5.5 in) | 28.0 cm (11.0 in) |
| Wingspan | 24.0 cm (9.4 in) | 46.0 cm (18.1 in) |
| Weight | 18.0 g (0.63 oz) | 62.0 g (2.19 oz) |
| Diet | Insects and spiders in summer, seeds and nuts in winter. A frequent and dominant visitor … | Insects and larvae probed from the ground, especially beetle grubs, crickets, and caterpillars. Occasionally takes … |
| Clutch Size | 3-18 | 2-12 |
| Population Trend | — | — |
Size Comparison
Habitat Comparison
Great Tit
Deciduous and mixed woodland, parks, gardens, and hedgerows. Readily uses nest boxes. Highly adaptable to human environments.
Hoopoe
Open woodland, orchards, vineyards, parkland, and grassland with bare or sparsely vegetated ground for foraging.
Song & Call Comparison
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.
Hoopoe
The eponymous call: a soft, far-carrying 'oop-oop-oop', repeated in triplets or quadruplets. Given from a hidden perch; mellow and flute-like. Contact call is a thin 'cherrr'.
Geographic Range & Migration
Great Tit
Widespread across Europe and Asia from Britain to Japan, and south to North Africa and Southeast Asia.
Hoopoe
Europe, Asia, and Africa. Northern populations are migratory. A widespread species across the Old World.
Conservation Status
Great Tit
Hoopoe
How to Tell Them Apart
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
Hoopoe
Pinkish-brown body with dramatically barred black and white wings and tail. Long, erectile, fan-shaped crest tipped with black. Undulating butterfly-like flight.
Long, thin, slightly decurved bill for probing soil
About These Birds
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.
Hoopoe
The hoopoe is one of the most distinctive birds in the Old World with its striking zebra-patterned wings and extravagant crest. It is the national bird of Israel and features prominently in mythology from ancient Egypt to the Quran. Hoopoe nests produce a foul-smelling secretion that deters predators.