The great tit (Parus major) is a small passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. It is a widespread and common species throughout Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and east across the Palearctic to the Amur River, south to parts of North Africa where it is generally resident in any sort of woodland; most great tits do not migrate except in extremely harsh winters. Until 2005 this species was lumped with numerous other subspecies. DNA studies have shown these other subspecies to be distinct from the great tit and these have now been separated as two distinct species, the cinereous tit (Parus cinereus) of southern Asia, and the Japanese tit (Parus minor) of East Asia. The great tit remains the most widespread species in the genus Parus.
The great tit is a distinctive bird with a black head and neck, prominent white cheeks, olive upperparts and yellow underparts, with some variation amongst the numerous subspecies. It is predominantly insectivorous in the summer, but will consume a wider range of food items in the winter months, including small hibernating bats.[2] Like all tits it is a cavity nester, usually nesting in a hole in a tree. The female lays around 12 eggs and incubates them alone, although both parents raise the chicks. In most years the pair will raise two broods. The nests may be raided by woodpeckers, squirrels and weasels and infested with fleas, and adults may be hunted by sparrowhawks. The great tit has adapted well to human changes in the environment and is a common and familiar bird in urban parks and gardens. The great tit is also an important study species in ornithology.
^BirdLife International (2016). Parus major. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22735990A87431138.en
^Estók, Péter; Zsebők, Sándor; Siemers, Björn M. (2009). "Great tits search for, capture, kill and eat hibernating bats". Biology Letters. 6 (1): 59–62. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2009.0611. PMC 2817260. PMID 19740892.
The greattit (Parus major) is a small passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. It is a widespread and common species throughout Europe, the Middle East...
The Japanese tit (Parus minor), also known as the Oriental tit, is a passerine bird which replaces the similar greattit in Japan and the Russian Far...
The coal tit or cole tit, (Periparus ater), is a small passerine bird in the tit family, Paridae. It is a widespread and common resident breeder in forests...
nests and in the search for food is the larger and more common greattit. The Eurasian blue tit prefers insects and spiders for its diet. Outside the breeding...
treated as subspecies of the greattit (Parus major). These birds are grey backed with white undersides. The greattit in the new sense is distinguishable...
The crested tit or European crested tit (Lophophanes cristatus) (formerly Parus cristatus), is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. It is a widespread...
The marsh tit (Poecile palustris) is a Eurasian passerine bird in the tit family Paridae and genus Poecile, closely related to the willow tit, Père David's...
genus name is Latin for "tit". Of the 12 species included in the genus by Linnaeus, the type species was designated as the greattit (Parus major) by George...
(Spectrogram) below of an 8MHz wide PAL-I Television signal. Spectrogram of greattit song. Constant-Q spectrogram of a gravitational wave (GW170817). Spectrogram...
communication has been in bird species, including the nuthatch and the greattit. Nuthatches are able to discriminate between subtle differences in chickadee...
Islands where they appear to be morphologically and ecologically distinct. Greattit (however, some studies dispute this example) The greenish warbler (Phylloscopus...
The willow tit (Poecile montanus) is a passerine bird in the tit family, Paridae. It is a widespread and common resident breeder throughout temperate...
for food can lead to the misuse of warning calls, as was observed for greattits: If food is scarce or monopolized by dominant birds, other birds (mainly...
The ground tit, Tibetan ground-tit or Hume's ground-tit (Pseudopodoces humilis) is a bird of the Tibetan plateau north of the Himalayas. The peculiar appearance...
the greattit (Parus major) when the offspring are produced as a result of a mating between close relatives. In natural populations of the greattit, inbreeding...
The southern black tit or simply black tit (Melaniparus niger) is a species of bird in the tit family Paridae, which is native to woodland habitats in...
The acacia tit (Melaniparus thruppi), also known as the Somali tit and northern grey tit, is a species of bird in the family Paridae. It is native to...
Naef-Daenzer (1999), greattits were shown to have a foraging efficiency 30% better than random foraging would yield. This is because greattits were specifically...
it makes the most sense for greattit individuals to lay their eggs. Nevertheless, by 2021, it was observed that greattit phenology continued to advance...
cuckoo access the nests of potential hosts. Other small birds, greattits and blue tits, showed alarm and avoided attending feeders on seeing either (mounted)...
red-listed), redstart (RSPB amber listed), nuthatch, pied flycatcher, greattit and blue tit. Raptors seen over the rocks include: red kite, buzzard and kestrel...
the higher latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, hole-nesting species like tits can lay up to a dozen and other species around five or six. The family Viduidae...
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