The eastern red bat is the most common tree bat in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
(Photo courtesy of Bill Stitt/iNaturalist CC BY-NC)
Appearance
The eastern red bat is a small bat measuring about three inches long with a 13-inch wingspan. Its fur is a rusty red-orange with males showing brighter coloring and females showing dustier colors. Both males and females have a white patch of fur at their shoulder and wing joints.
Feeding
Eastern red bats prefer to eat moths and butterflies, but they will eat a wide variety of insects including crickets, flies, mosquitos and beetles.
Predators
Predators of eastern red bats include foxes, birds of prey, snakes and opossums.
Flight
They are often most active at dusk.
Reproduction and Life Cycle
Mating occurs in the fall and pups are born in the summer. Females can give birth of up to five pups but most have litters of three pups. They can learn to fly in five weeks and are weaned at that time.
Did You Know?
Diving bats are frequently mistaken as being aggressive towards humans, when they are in fact going after insects.
The eastern red bat can fly at speeds of up to 40 miles per hour.
Wind turbines are becoming a growing danger for eastern red bats during their annual migration.
Eastern red bats are more tolerant of light pollution than other species of North American bats, including big brown bats and little brown bats.
Eastern red bats often follow the same flight path every night.
