​Staffordshire Bat Group

Frequencies of British Bats

There are 17 species of bat resident breeding in the UK and all can be heard with a bat detector with an echolocation range of 18-120kHz.

The table below indicates the frequencies at which you are most likely to receive the strongest signal for any given bat species. However, the exact 'peak' frequency may vary according to the individual bat and the habitat in which it is flying.

Learning to differentiate species is a skill which can take some time to learn. Some bats are simple to identify with the aid of a detector because the call is so distinctive, or few or no other bats echolocate at the same frequency. Others are harder to differentiate and other information about the bat such as wing shape, flight patterns or details of the habitat may be helpful.
 

                   

Echolocation Peak Frequency