Blue Tit vs Great Tit
How to tell these two garden look-alikes apart.
The quickest tell. Blue Tit: sky-blue cap, wings and tail. Great Tit: glossy black head with bold white cheek patches.
Photo: Bengt Nyman, CC BY (iNaturalist)
Blue Tit
Cyanistes caeruleus
How to spot it
- Sky-blue cap, wings and tail
- Yellow underparts and white cheeks with a dark line through the eye
- Smaller and rounder than a Great Tit, with no belly stripe
Birder's tip: Feeds acrobatically, hanging upside-down from the thinnest twigs and clinging under nut feeders.
Photo: hedera.baltica, CC BY-SA (iNaturalist)
Great Tit
Parus major
How to spot it
- Glossy black head with bold white cheek patches
- Broad black stripe down a lemon-yellow belly, widest on the male
- The largest and bulkiest of the tits
Birder's tip: The black belly-stripe is the tell, broad on males, narrow on females, and absent on a Coal Tit.
At a glance
| Blue Tit | Great Tit | |
|---|---|---|
| Size | smaller than a sparrow | sparrow-sized |
| When you'll see it | Resident, here all year | Resident, here all year |
| Latin name | Cyanistes caeruleus | Parus major |
Hear the difference
Their calls are often the giveaway. Have a listen.
Blue Tit call
Great Tit call
Learn them so they stick
Learn Birds teaches the UK's birds by sight and song, with real photos and recordings. It uses spaced repetition so the difference sticks for good.
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