Great Tit vs Raggiana Bird-of-paradise
Parus major compared with Paradisaea raggiana
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Attribute | Great Tit | Raggiana Bird-of-paradise |
|---|---|---|
| Scientific Name | Parus major | Paradisaea raggiana |
| Order | Passeriformes | Passeriformes |
| Family | Paridae | Paradisaeidae |
| Conservation Status | Least Concern | Least Concern |
| Length | 14.0 cm (5.5 in) | 34.0 cm (13.4 in) |
| Wingspan | 24.0 cm (9.4 in) | 45.0 cm (17.7 in) |
| Weight | 18.0 g (0.63 oz) | 260.0 g (9.17 oz) |
| Diet | Insects and spiders in summer, seeds and nuts in winter. A frequent and dominant visitor … | Fruit, seeds, arthropods, and small vertebrates. Males display at communal lek sites to attract females. |
| Clutch Size | 3-18 | 1-2 |
| 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.
Raggiana Bird-of-paradise
Tropical rainforest and forest edge from lowlands to mid-montane elevations in New Guinea.
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.
Raggiana Bird-of-paradise
Males emit harsh, buzzy 'kraaak' calls and explosive wailing during display. Females give softer 'waak' contact calls. Display calls are loud and chaotic at leks.
Geographic Range & Migration
Great Tit
Widespread across Europe and Asia from Britain to Japan, and south to North Africa and Southeast Asia.
Raggiana Bird-of-paradise
Southern and eastern New Guinea. Endemic to Papua New Guinea.
Conservation Status
Great Tit
Raggiana Bird-of-paradise
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
Raggiana Bird-of-paradise
Males have a yellow crown, emerald-green throat, and spectacular cascading orange-red flank plumes. Females are brown with rufous underparts.
Stout, slightly curved, blue-grey bill
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.
Raggiana Bird-of-paradise
The raggiana bird-of-paradise is the national bird of Papua New Guinea, featured on the national flag and coat of arms. Males gather at traditional display trees to perform elaborate courtship dances, hanging upside down and shaking their spectacular flank plumes. Alfred Russel Wallace first described the species in 1873.