Western small-footed myotis is one of the smallest bats in the West, tucking into cracks in canyon walls and badlands rather than open habitat, so most sightings come from bat surveys and museum specimens instead of casual photos. Only 12 of California’s 253 records came through iNaturalist; the rest are GBIF entries, a split that fits a bat too small and too nocturnal for most people to notice, let alone photograph.
Refuges like Salton Sea, Klamath Basin, and Don Edwards near San Francisco Bay show up in the records less because they match the species’ rocky, dry-country roosting habits and more because open water at those sites draws insects, and insects draw foraging bats after dark.
June carries the clearest peak in the monthly count, with 60 records, which likely tracks when survey crews are out with mist nets rather than a summer population surge. California lists the species as S3, vulnerable at the state level, worth noting given how thin the record trail already is.
Full species profile
