| Genus | Species | common name | Rep. rate | Rhythm | Tone quality | Duration | FM/CF | Peak power |
| Barbastella | barbastellus | Barbastelle | 15 | regular | "wood blocks" | 4 ms | 45>32;35>28 | 32 kHz |
| Eptesicus | serotinus | Serotine | 9 | very irregular | hand clap to "chink" | 5 ms | 55>25 | 28 kHz |
| Myotis | bechsteinii | Bechstein's | 10 | irregular | sharp tick | 2.5 ms | 110>34 | 50 kHz |
| Myotis | brandtii | Brandt's | 12 | regular | dull click | 5 ms | 65>41 | 45 kHz |
| Myotis | daubentoni | Daubenton's | 14 | regular | flat click | 6 ms | 62>39 | 50 KHz |
| Myotis | mystacinus | Whiskered | 12 | regular | dull click | 5 ms | 65>41 | 45kHz |
| Myotis | nattereri | Natterer's | 30 | very irregular | crumpled cellophane | 2 ms | 70>31 | 38 kHz |
| Nyctalus | liesleri | Liesler's | 5 | irregular | chip-chip..chop | 11 ms | 31>25 | 28 kHz |
| Nyctalus | noctula | Noctule | 3 | irregular | chip-chop | 14 ms | 20>18 | 19 kHz |
| Pipistrellus | nathusii | Nathusius' pip | 10 | quite regular | chink | 8 ms | 49>39 HS | 39 kHz |
| Pipistrellus | pipistrellus | Common pip | 11 | quite regular | chink | 6 ms | 55>45 HS | 48 kHz |
| Pipistrellus | pygmaeus | Soprano pip | 12 | quite regular | chink | 6 ms | 65>54 HS | 56 kHz |
| Plecotus | auritus | Brown long-eared |
10 | regular | quiet clicks | 2 ms | 62>34 | 40 kHz |
| Plecotus | austriacus | Grey long-eared |
10 | regular | quiet clicks | 2 ms | 63>30 | 48kHz |
| Rhinolphus | ferrumequinum | Greater horseshoe |
12 | continuous | warbles | 50 ms | 69 kHz CF | 69 kHz |
| Rhinolphus | hipposideros | Lesser horseshoe |
12 | continuous | warbles | 40 ms | 99kHz CF | 99 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, Lieslers 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. Its important to realise that the quality of a click sound will be impaired if your bat detector speaker is small (as for example some of the Ciel detectors) because the clicks have frequency components below 200Hz; so if you want to identify the bats its best to use headphones. In the FM/CF column: 65>40 indicates a sweep from 65 down to 40 kHz; HS hockeystick; and CF constant frequency. |
| 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 "Bats of Britain" has lots of information including spectrograms and time expansion recordings of all the british bats (calls courtesy of Dr. Stuart Parsons). |