| Species | Rep. rate | Rhythm | Tone quality | Duration | FM/CF | Tune to |
| Natterer | 30 | very irregular | crumpled cellophane | 2 ms | FM | 45kHz |
| Daubenton | 16 | regular | flat click | 2 - 4 ms | FM | 45kHz |
| Whiskered / Brandts | 12 | regular | dull click | 3 - 5 ms | FM | 45kHz |
| Pipistrelle | 9 | quite regular | chink | 4 - 6 ms | Hockeystick | 39, 45, 55kHz |
| Serotine | 5 | very irregular | warble | 10 - 15 ms | CF | 28 kHz |
| Noctule | 4 | irregular | two distinct | 8ms & 20 ms | CF | 23 kHz |
| The table above is a rough guide only, as the characteristics of a bat call are strongly affected by its environment. A bat flying in the open doesn't need to repeat so quickly, and can use a longer duration call. Calls with a duration less than about 4ms are too short to have a clear pitch and are heard instead as some kind of click; so Pips and Noctules have a clear pitch to their call while Natterers, Daubentons, Whiskered/Brandts and Long-eared are generally click-like with only occasional calls being long enough to have a clear pitch. |
| It is hoped
soon to provide a range of recordings of bats made by our members, using all
three detector types. If you can provide good (i.e. typical )
recordings particularly for bats/detectors not already listed, please contact me via the dbg mailing list. Please note it is important to record as much detail as possible of the conditions - weather, surroundings, equipment used and settings, and particularly if using a heterodyne detector the frequency to which it is set. |
Heterodyne |
Frequency division |
Time Expansion (X20) |
You may download the files for your own use by right-clicking on the links below
| Heterodyne | Frequency division | Time expansion |
| Pipistrelle (pip. pip.) 1M | Pipistrelle (pip. pip.) 1.2M Ciel | Pipistrelle (pip. pip.) 933k |
| Pip. Pygmaeus 429k | ||
| Noctule 1.2M | Noctule 343k | Noctule 1147k |
| Daubenton's bat 344k | Daubenton's bat 1507k |
| Thanks to Philip Briggs and Jules Agate of the Bat Conservation Trust and Ciel Electronique for providing the above files and permission to provide them for non-profit use. |
| BCT members can access the BCT bat call library where you will find a much wider range of recorded calls. |
| Bristol's Batlab has time expansion recordings of all the british bats courtesy of Dr. Stuart Parsons. |