Great Tit vs White-tailed Eagle
Parus major compared with Haliaeetus albicilla
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Attribute | Great Tit | White-tailed Eagle |
|---|---|---|
| Scientific Name | Parus major | Haliaeetus albicilla |
| Order | Passeriformes | Accipitriformes |
| Family | Paridae | Accipitridae |
| Conservation Status | Least Concern | Least Concern |
| Length | 14.0 cm (5.5 in) | 84.0 cm (33.1 in) |
| Wingspan | 24.0 cm (9.4 in) | 225.0 cm (88.6 in) |
| Weight | 18.0 g (0.63 oz) | 5200.0 g (183.42 oz) |
| Diet | Insects and spiders in summer, seeds and nuts in winter. A frequent and dominant visitor … | Fish, waterfowl, and carrion. Often pirates food from other birds. Takes fish from the water … |
| Clutch Size | 3-18 | 1-3 |
| Population Trend | — | — |
Size Comparison
Habitat Comparison
Shared Habitats
None
Great Tit only
White-tailed Eagle only
Great Tit
Deciduous and mixed woodland, parks, gardens, and hedgerows. Readily uses nest boxes. Highly adaptable to human environments.
White-tailed Eagle
Coastlines, large lakes, and rivers with mature trees or cliffs for nesting. Requires large undisturbed 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.
White-tailed Eagle
High-pitched, yelping 'klee-klee' and deep barking 'ra-ra-ra'. Less vocal than Bald Eagle but similar chattering quality. Gives gull-like wailing near nest in breeding season.
Geographic Range & Migration
Great Tit
Widespread across Europe and Asia from Britain to Japan, and south to North Africa and Southeast Asia.
White-tailed Eagle
Northern Europe and Asia from Greenland and Scandinavia to Japan. Reintroduced to Scotland and Ireland.
Conservation Status
Great Tit
White-tailed Eagle
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
White-tailed Eagle
Brown body with a paler head in adults and a distinctive short white wedge-shaped tail. Massive broad wings in flight. Juveniles are darker overall.
Very large, heavy, pale yellow 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.
White-tailed Eagle
The white-tailed eagle is Europe's largest eagle and the fourth-largest eagle in the world. Once extinct in Britain, it has been successfully reintroduced to Scotland and Ireland through conservation programs. These powerful raptors can live over 25 years and form lifelong pair bonds.