# Great tit (*Parus major*)

Canonical page: https://creaturedata.com/animals/great-tit  
Data as of: 2026-11-11

The great tit (Parus major) is a bird in the family Paridae and order Passeriformes, placed in the songbirds and other perching birds subgroup. It is a small, sedentary, perching bird of woodland, with an adult body mass of 16.25 g and a wingspan of 23 cm. Its diet category is invertivore, and its trophic level is omnivore. Clutches hold 8.6 eggs with an incubation period of 13.5 days, sexual maturity comes at 1 year, and the species is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List.

## Quick facts

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Weight | 16.3 g – 19.1 g |
| Length | Not recorded |
| Wingspan | 23 cm |
| Lifespan | 15.2 years |
| Diet | Invertivore |
| Longest recorded lifespan | 15.4 years |
| Main food | Not recorded |
| Habitat | woodland |
| Egg incubation | 13.5 days |
| Young per litter or clutch | 7.7 – 8.6 |
| Age at maturity | 12 months |
| Litters or clutches a year | 1.5 |
| Reproduction | Eggs |
| Lifestyle | Perching |
| Migration | Sedentary |
| Conservation status | Least Concern (IUCN) |
| Countries on record | Not recorded |

## Classification

- kingdom: Animalia
- phylum: Chordata
- class: Aves
- order: Passeriformes
- family: Paridae
- genus: Parus
- species: *Parus major* Linnaeus, 1758

Synonyms: *Parus hortensis*, *Parus major kansuensis*, *Parus viridis*

## Common questions

### How heavy is a great tit?

The great tit has an adult body mass of 16.25 g, with values up to 19.05 g reported. Its wingspan is 23 cm.

### What does the great tit eat?

The great tit is in the invertivore diet category, and its trophic level is omnivore.

### Is the great tit endangered?

No. The great tit is listed as Least Concern (LC) in the global IUCN Red List assessment, which is not a threatened category.

### How long does a great tit live?

The great tit has a lifespan of 15.2 years, with values up to 15.42 years reported.

### How many eggs does a great tit lay?

The great tit lays 8.6 eggs per clutch and has 1.5 clutches per year. Incubation lasts 13.5 days.

### What kind of animal is the great tit?

The great tit is a bird in the family Paridae, part of the songbirds and other perching birds subgroup.

### Who named the great tit?

The great tit, Parus major, was named by Linnaeus, 1758.

### What are other names for the great tit?

Other English names for the great tit are Turkestan tit and Northern great tit.

## Sources

- [An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles](https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1), CC0 1.0, E096-269. Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1
- [AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds](https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7), CC BY 4.0, v7. Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7
- [Catalogue of Life eXtended Release](https://www.checklistbank.org/dataset/316691), CC BY 4.0, 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf
- [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org), per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed), 2026-11-11. Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence).
- [Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org), CC0 1.0, 2026-11-11. Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service).
- [Wikipedia (English)](https://en.wikipedia.org), CC BY-SA 4.0, 2026-11-11. Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).

Cite as: Great tit (Parus major). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/great-tit