Great Tit vs Scarlet Macaw
Parus major compared with Ara macao
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Attribute | Great Tit | Scarlet Macaw |
|---|---|---|
| Scientific Name | Parus major | Ara macao |
| Order | Passeriformes | Psittaciformes |
| Family | Paridae | Psittacidae |
| Conservation Status | Least Concern | Least Concern |
| Length | 14.0 cm (5.5 in) | 85.0 cm (33.5 in) |
| Wingspan | 24.0 cm (9.4 in) | 110.0 cm (43.3 in) |
| Weight | 18.0 g (0.63 oz) | 1000.0 g (35.27 oz) |
| Diet | Insects and spiders in summer, seeds and nuts in winter. A frequent and dominant visitor … | Fruits, nuts, seeds, and flowers from rainforest canopy trees. Visits clay licks to detoxify compounds … |
| Clutch Size | 3-18 | 1-4 |
| 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.
Scarlet Macaw
Humid tropical lowland rainforests, gallery forests, and forest edges. Requires large mature trees with cavities for nesting.
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.
Scarlet Macaw
Very loud, raucous squawking screams 'araak-araak'. Also gives chattering contact calls in pairs. Capable of mimicking human speech in captivity. Highly vocal throughout the day.
Geographic Range & Migration
Great Tit
Widespread across Europe and Asia from Britain to Japan, and south to North Africa and Southeast Asia.
Scarlet Macaw
Southern Mexico through Central America to Amazonian South America, including Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, and Colombia.
Conservation Status
Great Tit
Scarlet Macaw
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
Scarlet Macaw
Brilliant scarlet red body with bright yellow wing coverts and blue flight feathers and tail. Large white bare facial patch around the eye.
Large, strongly curved bill — pale horn upper mandible, dark lower mandible
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.
Scarlet Macaw
The scarlet macaw is one of the most iconic tropical birds with its dazzling tricolor plumage. These highly intelligent parrots form lifelong pair bonds and can live over 75 years in captivity. They play an important ecological role as seed dispersers in Neotropical rainforests.