Eastern red bats don’t roost in caves or buildings like most Massachusetts bats. They hang alone in leaf clusters at the edge of tree canopy, wrapped in a furred tail membrane that makes them look like a dead leaf to a passing predator, which is why records near the wooded edges of Blue Hills Reservation and Massasoit National Wildlife Refuge likely trace to daytime roosts in nearby foliage rather than caves.
Records carry three bumps, April, July, and a stronger one across September and October, tracking spring arrival, summer roosting, and the fall migration when red bats move south in large numbers rather than hibernating locally. NatureServe ranks the species S3, vulnerable, in Massachusetts, notably more precarious than most of the state’s other bats, in part because it migrates instead of overwintering in protected hibernacula.
Full species profile
