Alabama holds a modest string of Rafinesque’s big-eared bat records: 10 total, drawn from both iNaturalist and GBIF between 2000 and 2026, most recently in September 2025. Reports turn up in most months of the year, with June the most frequently recorded, though that doesn’t mean the bat is easier to find in summer than any other season.
A hollow-tree bat tracking central Alabama’s forest belt
Records trace a band running from the Ridge and Valley hill country near Birmingham’s Oak Mountain State Park, through the Piedmont plateau around Talladega National Forest, into the pine-hardwood transition of Tuskegee National Forest near the Coastal Plain edge. That spread lines up with the species’ two favorite roost types nationwide, hollow trees in mature hardwood stands and old buildings, both of which turn up across this stretch of central Alabama’s forest and farmland mix.
Ears built for picking insects off leaves, not chasing them
This bat gleans moths and other insects directly from vegetation rather than hawking them out of open air, a hunting style its oversized ears are built for. That habit keeps it close to structured cover, hollow trees and old buildings, night after night, which is likely why Alabama’s records cluster around forested public land instead of open fields.
Status in Alabama
Rafinesque’s big-eared bat is native to Alabama. NatureServe ranks it S2, imperiled, well below what its Least Concern global listing alone would suggest.
