Giant Noctule

• GeneralThe largest bat in Europe and the only one that takes migrating birds on the wing.
• In October 2025 a team from the EBD-CSIC and Aarhus University published in Science the first sound recording of a noctule chasing, catching and eating a robin in mid-air without landing: 21 distress calls from the bird followed by 23 minutes of chewing sounds.
• In order to eat such bulky prey in flight it cuts off their wings, reducing both weight and drag.
• Its echolocation frequencies lie above the hearing range of birds, a private sensory channel its prey cannot detect.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (mammal)

Habitat and environment

Mature woodland and dehesa with old trees

Sources consulted: IUCN Red List; SECEM; SECEMU; Ibáñez et al. 2001, PNAS 98; Popa-Lisseanu et al. (isótopos estables); Estación Biológica de Doñana (EBD-CSIC) y Universidad de Aarhus 2025, Science; MITECO

Best time: From spring to autumn; it leaves its roosts late at night, once it is completely dark