- Scientific Name
- Nycticeius humeralis
- Family
- Vespertilionidae
- Region
- Alabama, Virginia, Arkansas, West Virginia, Georgia, Maryland, Illinois, Delaware, Indiana, District of Columbia, Iowa, Michigan, Kansas, New Jersey, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Mississippi, Canada, Missouri, North America, Nebraska, USA, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Texas, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee
Pronunciation: nick-tee-zee-us hume-er-al-is
The Evening Bat is an abundant bat throughout the southeastern United States, northward to the upper Midwest and Ontario and along the Atlantic seaboard south through Florida to Veracruz, Mexico.
A true forest bat, the Evening Bat is almost never encountered in caves. It forms nursery colonies in hollow trees, behind loose bark, and sometimes in buildings and attics. Some of these maternity colonies are quite large, containing several hundred individuals. Evening Bats emerge soon after dusk and forage on a large array of small nocturnal insects including flying ants, Japanese beetles, June beetles, moths, and spittle bugs.
In the fall, Evening Bats store large amounts of fat for a lengthy migration to southern parts of its range. In a banded bat recovery study, Evening Bats were found as far as 547 kilometers south of their banding sites. Still, little research has been done to learn exact migration movements of this species. The bats have not been found hibernating in local caves and simply disappear from their summer habitat. Once these bats have arrived at their wintering sites, they are thought to remain active throughout the winter.