Great Tit vs Red-tailed Hawk
Parus major compared with Buteo jamaicensis
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Attribute | Great Tit | Red-tailed Hawk |
|---|---|---|
| Scientific Name | Parus major | Buteo jamaicensis |
| Order | Passeriformes | Accipitriformes |
| Family | Paridae | Accipitridae |
| Conservation Status | Least Concern | Least Concern |
| Length | 14.0 cm (5.5 in) | 53.0 cm (20.9 in) |
| Wingspan | 24.0 cm (9.4 in) | 124.0 cm (48.8 in) |
| Weight | 18.0 g (0.63 oz) | 1080.0 g (38.10 oz) |
| Diet | Insects and spiders in summer, seeds and nuts in winter. A frequent and dominant visitor … | Small to medium mammals, especially voles, mice, and rabbits. Also takes birds, reptiles, and large … |
| Clutch Size | 3-18 | 2-4 |
| Population Trend | — | — |
Size Comparison
Habitat Comparison
Shared Habitats
Great Tit only
None
Red-tailed Hawk only
Great Tit
Deciduous and mixed woodland, parks, gardens, and hedgerows. Readily uses nest boxes. Highly adaptable to human environments.
Red-tailed Hawk
Open country with scattered elevated perches such as trees, poles, and cliffs. Adaptable to farmland, grasslands, roadsides, and suburban areas.
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.
Red-tailed Hawk
Iconic, raspy descending scream: 'kreeeeee-ar', often used in films for all raptors. Gives short barking 'kak' notes near nest. Juveniles beg with persistent squealing whistles.
Geographic Range & Migration
Great Tit
Widespread across Europe and Asia from Britain to Japan, and south to North Africa and Southeast Asia.
Red-tailed Hawk
North America from Alaska to Panama, including the Caribbean. One of the most common raptors in North America.
Conservation Status
Great Tit
Red-tailed Hawk
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
Red-tailed Hawk
Variable plumage from pale to dark morphs. Most adults have rich brown upperparts, a pale breast with a dark belly band, and the characteristic rufous-red tail.
Dark hooked bill with a yellow cere
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.
Red-tailed Hawk
The red-tailed hawk is the most widespread and common hawk in North America. Its screaming cry is so iconic that it is often dubbed over bald eagle footage in films and television. These adaptable raptors thrive in human-altered landscapes and are a familiar sight perched along highways.