Washington’s hoary bat record spans 17 counties, from Whitman and Walla Walla in the wheat country of the southeast to King, Pierce, and Clallam on the west side. Forty records over two decades fit an animal that passes most of its life alone, high in the night air or hidden in foliage.
A solitary bat of the treetops
The hoary bat is among the largest bats in North America, wrapped in silver-tipped fur that gives the species its name. It roosts alone in tree foliage rather than in caves or barns, emerging after dark to hawk moths and other large insects in open air over fields, rivers, and forest edges. Its size and strong, steady flight carry it across the state from the Palouse to the coast.
Here for summer, gone by winter
Washington counts build from June to a September crest, then collapse: from December through March the record is essentially empty. The hoary bat is one of North America’s long-distance migrants, and its Washington animals head south as insects vanish, leaving the state’s winters largely to hibernating cave bats until the next summer’s wave returns.
Status in Washington
NatureServe ranks the hoary bat S3, Vulnerable, in Washington, with a global rank of G3. The species is native to the state, and USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
Full species profile
