Western bonneted bats are the largest bats in the United States, with ears so big they fuse into one bonnet across the forehead, and they need tall cliff faces to launch from since they can’t take off from the ground. Texas’s records cluster around Big Bend, Guadalupe Mountains, and the Davis Mountains, canyon country with exactly that kind of high rock face.
The 62 Texas records peak sharply in July, with smaller upticks in June and September, and the most recent sighting on record dates to 2020, older than most other Texas bat entries, suggesting this species gets looked for, and found, less often than its neighbors. Texas ranks it S3, vulnerable, a state-specific concern layered on top of its secure global status, worth remembering for a bat this rarely confirmed here in recent years.
Full species profile
