Wednesday, August 24, 2011

a "batty" experience at the hummingbird feeder...



A group of bats have been feeding at our hummingbird feeders this past week. Here is video footage from our camcorder on infrared setting, beginning at around 9pm.

The footage includes close-up shots (you can see the bats' mouths open as they feed) as well as shots that are panned out to see the bats flying in to feed.

If you rather see a quick video of the most active footage, go here.

Arizona has 3 nectar-feeding species of bats, and this could be the lesser long-nosed bat.   They are here from August to October, on their way back down to their winter home in southern Mexico.  The lesser long-nosed bat has one young per year.

You might ask, how do you suspect that you have bats coming in at night?  Well, your full feeder is mysteriously empty in the morning.  Hmmmm!  After that happened to us a few times, we decided to investigate into the darkness with this video.  We were rewarded with this great show above.

4 comments:

  1. You have just solved a mystery for my mother who is always wondering why her humming bird feeder is empty in the morning:) I am sending her your link. Pretty amazing video:) Thanks for sharing

    ReplyDelete
  2. Amazing! I was wondering (at the beginning of the post) how you thought to check for bats...but I guess if your feeder is mysteriously empty by morning...that would be a clue! Great video - I'm forwarding it on to a few people. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. lol that is cool. those are some big bats! Thanks for linking up to the NOBH.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks Mamas! (-:

    The Adventurer~ glad to help with your mom's hummingbird feeder mystery! Will she shine a flashlight on her feeder at night to see the bats? It doesn't have to be late- ours got active about an hour after sunset.

    MamaTea~ I have heard about empty hummingbird feeders and the bat connection from several different wildlife talks in our area. It was fun to follow up and confirm the presence of the bats! I hadn't know before these talks that there were nectar-feeding bats, so I don't know if we would have figured it out on our own.

    Melismama~They *are* big bats, aren't they? (-: We were watching from inside through a window, feeling nice and safe. (-:

    ReplyDelete