Hoary Bat

Similar Species:
Silver-haired Bat is blackish with pale frosting. Red bats, much smaller and more reddish, do not have yellowish throat or black-rimmed ears.

Breeding:
Mates in fall and perhaps in winter. 2 young born late May-early June among foliage.

Habitat:
Both deciduous and coniferous forests, as well as desert canyons. Roosts in foliage.

Range:
Across southern half of Canada southward though continental U.S. except peninsular Florida.

The most widely distributed bat in the U.S. and Canada, the Hoary Bat emerges late in the evening to feed, mostly on moths, In summer, male Hoary Bate are found in the southwestern U.S., while the females are spread over the rest of the range. In fall, the females join the males in the Southwest and both sexes migrate to México, lower California, and South America, where they spent the winter.  A few individual winter in coastal South Carolina; some may remain in northern area and hibernate. Presumably mating takes place in winter or during migration. In spring, the males move back to the Southwest and female return to the North and East. The only bat in the East that surpasses the Hoary Bat in size is the rare Jamaican Fruits-eating Bat, found only in the Florida Keys, and southward. The endanger subspecies L. c semotus, the Hawaiian Hoary Bat, is the only bat on many types of insects rather than primarily on moths.