Great Tit vs Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Parus major compared with Archilochus colubris
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Attribute | Great Tit | Ruby-throated Hummingbird |
|---|---|---|
| Scientific Name | Parus major | Archilochus colubris |
| Order | Passeriformes | Caprimulgiformes |
| Family | Paridae | Trochilidae |
| Conservation Status | Least Concern | Least Concern |
| Length | 14.0 cm (5.5 in) | 8.5 cm (3.3 in) |
| Wingspan | 24.0 cm (9.4 in) | 11.0 cm (4.3 in) |
| Weight | 18.0 g (0.63 oz) | 3.1 g (0.11 oz) |
| Diet | Insects and spiders in summer, seeds and nuts in winter. A frequent and dominant visitor … | Nectar from tubular flowers, supplemented with small insects and spiders for protein. Feeds at over … |
| Clutch Size | 3-18 | 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.
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Deciduous and mixed forests, woodland edges, gardens, and parks with flowering plants. Migrates across the Gulf of Mexico.
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.
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Soft, high-pitched chattering and twittering 'chee-dit'. Also produces a thin 'tik' call in flight. Wing beats create an audible high-pitched humming buzz during hovering.
Geographic Range & Migration
Great Tit
Widespread across Europe and Asia from Britain to Japan, and south to North Africa and Southeast Asia.
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Eastern North America from southern Canada to the Gulf Coast. Winters in Central America and southern Mexico.
Conservation Status
Great Tit
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
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
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Metallic green upperparts and greyish-white underparts. Males have a brilliant iridescent ruby-red gorget that appears black in poor light. Females lack the gorget.
Long, straight, thin black bill adapted for probing flowers
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.
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
The ruby-throated hummingbird is the only breeding hummingbird in eastern North America. These tiny birds beat their wings about 53 times per second and can fly backwards, sideways, and even briefly upside down. They make an extraordinary non-stop 800 km crossing of the Gulf of Mexico during migration.