Is a Bat a Bird or a Mammal?

You’ve probably watched a bat flit across the sky at dusk and wondered, for a second, whether it’s just a small bird out late.

It’s an easy mistake in poor light, when an erratic, swooping shape overhead gives little else to go on.

A bat is a mammal, while birds are an entirely different class of animal, a common myth born mostly from how alike the two look on the wing at a distance.

Learn more from trusted bird control experts.

What makes a bat a mammal

Bats have fur, give birth to live young rather than laying eggs, and nurse their babies with milk, exactly like every other mammal.

Birds do none of this: they hatch from eggs, are covered in feathers, and have beaks instead of teeth.

Bats also belong to their own scientific order, Chiroptera, which roughly translates as “hand-wing”, a nod to how their wing bones map onto the bones of a human hand.

Bats are also the only mammals capable of true, sustained flight.

Flying squirrels glide between trees using a flap of skin, relying on height and air resistance to cover the distance.

A bat’s wing is a thin membrane stretched across elongated finger bones, driven by its own flight muscles.

Mechanically, that’s much closer to how a bird’s wing works, even though the animal underneath it is built completely differently.

How a bird’s body compares

A bird’s skeleton is built around a beak, hollow bones, and feathers, all suited to laying and incubating eggs.

A bat’s skeleton is built around teeth, fur, and a rib cage carrying young internally before birth.

How bats find their way in the dark

Most UK bats use echolocation to hunt and navigate at night.

They emit ultrasonic calls too high for human ears and read the returning echo to build a picture of what’s around them, insects, branches, walls, in complete darkness.

Birds don’t do this: they rely on vision instead, which is exactly why birds are mostly active by day while bats are nocturnal.

Owls cause a similar mix-up after dark, another silent flyer easy to misjudge in poor light, though an owl is a bird through and through, hunting by sight and hearing rather than echolocation.

Bats look like rodents too

A bat clinging to a wall or curled up in a loft corner, wings folded, can look surprisingly mouse-like at first glance.

The fur and the size invite the comparison.

Check the ears and the wings, since a bat’s ears are often large relative to its head, and if it stirs, you’ll see a membrane rather than a tail.

Rodents don’t fly, echolocate, or roost in tight colonies the way bats do.

Don’t touch either one

Bats and rodents both carry disease risks that make hands-off the right instinct, whichever one you’re actually looking at.

A small number of UK bats carry European bat lyssavirus, a rabies-related virus, so a bite or scratch needs washing with soap and water straight away, followed by a call to your GP or NHS 24.

Birds carry their own disease risks too.

Wild bird droppings can spread bird flu, so gulls, pigeons, and other populations are best left to a professional rather than handled directly.

Rodent droppings and urine can carry leptospirosis (Weil’s disease) and salmonella, so bare-handed contact with a mouse or rat, alive or dead, carries its own separate and severe risks.

Leave a bat exactly where it is and call the National Bat Helpline.

A rodent problem is exactly the kind of job our technicians handle safely, with the right protective equipment for it.

The bats you’ll find in an Edinburgh garden or loft

Scotland has ten bat species, and the common and soprano pipistrelle are by far the most widespread.

The soprano pipistrelle is the one most likely to be roosting in a house roof space anywhere in the Lothians.

A pipistrelle is small enough to fit in a matchbox, and a single one can eat up to 3,000 midges in a night.

These are not vampire bats. Nothing roosting in an Edinburgh loft feeds on blood.

Bats are a protected species in Scotland

Every bat species found in Scotland is protected under the Conservation (Natural Habitats, &c.) Regulations 1994, as amended, Scotland’s own version of the habitats legislation.

Bats also get additional protection under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, as do wild birds.

It’s an offence to deliberately capture, injure, kill or disturb a bat, or to damage or destroy a roost, even one that’s empty at the time.

We won’t quote a specific fine or sentence here, since the figures we found weren’t confirmed as Scotland-specific and we’d rather not state something with false confidence.

Hibernation raises the stakes

Bats in Scotland hibernate over winter, usually between November and March, tucked into roof spaces, tree cavities or crevices where the temperature stays stable.

Waking a hibernating bat burns fat reserves it needs to survive until spring.

A NatureScot licence is required for any work likely to disturb a roost, including home repairs, at any time of year.

NatureScot’s licensing team can be reached on 01463 725 364 for anything affecting bats specifically.

What to do if you find a bat roosting

Bat roosts need a licensed ecologist to remove or relocate safely and legally, since bats are a protected wildlife species.

Pest control technicians don’t hold that licence, so a roost sits outside our usual work.

The National Bat Helpline, run by the Bat Conservation Trust, is the right first call: 0345 1300 228, open Monday to Friday, 9.30am to 4.30pm, with volunteers covering an out-of-hours emergency line between May and September.

If what’s on your roof turns out to be gulls or pigeons rather than bats, that’s a different matter, and one we do deal with regularly across Edinburgh and the Lothians with our bird control.

Is a bat a bird: your questions answered

Is a bat a bird or an animal?

A bat is a mammal, and mammals are animals just like birds are. It’s the only mammal capable of true powered flight, which is why it’s sometimes mistaken for a bird from a distance.

Why do people think bats might be birds?

Both fly, and seen at dusk against the sky, a bat’s silhouette and darting flight path can resemble a small bird, even though the two share almost nothing else in common biologically.

What should I do if I find a bat roosting in my loft?

Leave the roost undisturbed and call the National Bat Helpline on 0345 1300 228. Don’t attempt to seal an entry point or move the bats yourself, since that risks a wildlife offence.

Are the bats found in Scotland dangerous?

Scotland’s bats, mostly pipistrelles, are small insect-eaters and aren’t a danger to people. A pipistrelle can eat thousands of midges in a single night.