Q:

Why does the status bar look so tall when I add a navigation controller?

I used to set the window's view with [self.window setRootViewController:myViewController] where myViewController was just an ordinary view controller. The status bar looked normal. Then I added a navigation controller. I used:
UINavigationController *navigationController = [[UINavigationController alloc] init];
[navigationController pushViewController:myViewController animated:NO];
NSLog(@"height of status bar is %d", [UIApplication sharedApplication].statusBarFrame.size.height);
[self.window setRootViewController:navigationController];

The log prints "height of status bar is 20".
Yet the status bar look super tall:

A:

This is the navigationbar with status bar. As both are of same color so it seems you that status bar height is larger.
Change Color of Navigationbar and then check :
[your_navController.navigationBar setTintColor:[UIColor blueColor]];

