Does anyone have any recommendations for identifying bats? There’s been several that have been flying around my neighborhood (Los Angeles) every evening and I’d like to know whether there’s an app for recording their calls or a way to identify them visually. I did learn some bat taxonomy and ID in c…

I am no where near educated enough to sufficiently answer your question however, I can help a little. There is a machine which is reasonably hard to get your hands which records bat sounds. It can be bought online or given to you by a local scientist who specializes in bats. However if you can’t get…

The device you mentioned is generally referred to as a bat detector (clever, right?), and works by making recordings with a specialized high-frequency microphone. One of the more readily available ones comes from Wildlife Acoustics (here: https://www.wildlifeacoustics.com/products/echo-meter-touch-2…

A bat detector is the best way to get an approximate ID without disturbing them. Trying to get into a roost to identify them visually should not be done if you’re not experienced as you will likely disturb them and it may even be illegal to do so (I don’t know the specific laws in California but in …

@corvidaeus I probably shouldn’t sound quite so harsh on the auto-ID from the handheld detectors, but I’ve had some real struggles in areas with high bat diversity. I do a lot of bat call ID professionally, and it can be really tricky in parts of the U.S. where we regularly get 11-15 species, all of…

Quite simply, bats can be tough. Acoustic data (i.e., a sonagram of the call) from a bat detector isn’t always definitive. For many Myotis species, a photo isn’t always diagnostic unless you get close-up photos of certain features such as the calcar and take measurements of ear, forearm, body lengt…

I totally understand, I also do bat surveying professionally and there is a lot of overlap in the calls, and you’re right that they’re usually not sufficient for species-level ID. Most of the species I encounter here in the UK can at least be narrowed down to genus level using the detector, and the …

Identifying Bats

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Identifying Bats

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