Coal Tit or Nuthatch?

These two get mixed up constantly. Here is what actually separates them, taken from each bird's own page.

Coal tits also snatch a single seed and fly off to cache it, which is the behaviour people muddle. But a coal tit has a black head with white cheeks and a white stripe up the back of the neck, and is noticeably smaller and rounder. A nuthatch's head is blue-grey with a single black line through the eye.

Side by side

	Coal Tit	Nuthatch
Size	About 11cm — the smallest UK tit, clearly smaller than a blue tit and much smaller than a robin.	About the same length as a robin but stockier and shorter-tailed — roughly great tit sized, with a woodpecker's outline.
Where you'll see it	Briefly at feeders, and in conifers and tall trees; it seldom stays put for more than a second or two.	On the trunks and thick limbs of mature trees, and on peanut and sunflower feeders hung near them.
What it eats	Insects and spiders in summer, conifer seed in winter, plus sunflower hearts and peanut fragments it carries away.	Insects and spiders prised from bark in summer; hazelnuts, acorns, beech mast, sunflower hearts and peanuts from autumn onward.
When	Resident all year; most obvious in autumn and winter when it is actively hoarding food.	Resident all year, but far more likely in a garden between October and March when woodland food runs short.
Status	Green listed	Green listed

Still not sure? Describe what you saw and we will rank every garden bird against it — including these two.

Both descriptions are taken from the species pages, which cite the BTO and RSPB. Reviewed 2026-09-20.