How to Go Bat-Watching

31.08.2023 - 20:08 / atlasobscura.com / Atlas Obscura

If you spend a lot of time outdoors at night in the summer, you might be used to seeing shaky, silhouetted creatures flitting above. Maybe you’ve stopped to watch them skim over your garden at twilight, or you’ve caught them while you’re camping near a lake, or you just sense a brief flash of movement outside your window. Birdwatching is great, but bat-watching is another world entirely.

Anybody can learn how to bat-watch, according to Merlin Tuttle and Teresa Nichta, cofounders of the nonprofit Merlin Tuttle’s Bat Conservation (MTBC) in Austin, Texas. And given the adaptability of these flying mammals, it’s quite likely there will be bats wherever you are. Tuttle has over 60 years of experience in the field and is considered one of the fathers of bat conservation in North America. Nichta is the organization’s outreach and archive manager which includes MTBC’s enormous photographic collection. Together, they offered Atlas Obscura some tips on how to get started.

There are more than 1,400 species of bats worldwide, so unless you live in the Arctic or Antarctic, you’re likely to be able to find them. In North America, these can include brown bats, pallid bats, Mexican free-tailed bats, gray bats, and many more.

You’ll need to keep an eye out for different bats, and in different ways, depending on what region you’re in, Tuttle says. For example, if you live in the Southwest United States or Mexico, you might see nectarivorous bats feeding on flowering agave plants, for which they’re also a key pollinator. These species are likely to be the lesser long-nosed and Mexican long-nosed bat, which also drink from flowering cacti. There are places in Alabama and Tennessee, where a kayak trip can take you to see gray bats leaving their caves and flying over lakes. If you’re in the Northeast United States, you might see a lot of little brown bats—the New York State’s most common species—or northern bats.

Lakes and other bodies of water are a great place to start (see below), and different species prefer different bodies of water. More agile species such as the big-eared bat prefer smaller bodies of water, while bigger ones—such as the western mastiff bat, which can reach a wingspan of at least 21 inches—need more runway, at least 100 feet of open space, to be able to come down for a drink. Tuttle even describes some species drinking from cattle water troughs. Supposedly, if you sit to watch one in some places, bats might fly down and drink as often as every couple of seconds.

If you arrive at your chosen site in time for sunset, you should be able to see bats against the sky at dusk, before light levels become too low. They’re relatively easy to distinguish from birds: Their webbed wings are clearly silhouetted as