Two million bats swarm over bridge in Austin, Texas

It’s a warm September night here in Austin. We took a short walk over to the Congress Avenue Bridge to see, what has become a major Austin tourist attraction. The largest urban bat colony in North America live under this bridge in the gaps between the concrete. Two million Mexican free-tailed bats. For some perspective, there are only 900,000 PEOPLE living in Austin. Every evening from March through September, the bats come out at dusk, forming a black bat-cloud that spirals out into the sky. This nightly bat-feeding was initially met with fear by the locals, but slowly an appreciation developed for these gentle and incredibly sophisticated animals. Now as the sun sets, a crowd of people gather to watch in fascination. During each nightly foray the bats manage to eat an estimated 30,000 POUNDS of insects, moths, beetles, dragonflies, flies wasps and ants! This spectacle attracts as many as 100,000 tourists annually and it gives an $8 million economic boost to the city of Austin. Did you know that Mexican free-tailed bats are widely regarded as one of the most abundant mammals in North America? They are only about 3 1/2 inches long and weigh about .75 oz. They used to roost in caves and in the halls of trees, but now many bats prefer buildings and other man-made structures. They hunt their prey using echolocation. Bats are also very efficient pollinators. In fact, their pollination of sugarcane, as well as their consumption of insects damaging to sugarcane, is why Bacardi rum features the Mexican free tailed bat as its icon.

[moretoknowshow]

The Bats are some of the best bug hunters in the hill country. We love having them here!!

[matthewarmistead]

That's me drumming at the beginning.

[magdag]

Bad thing is almost no one here is sharing the fact that these bats don't come out every night. Weather is really hot from May-August (over 100) to go walking if you are staying far from the bridge. And parking is very expensive ($15-$25) and hard to find a spot. We tried 4 nights in a row from June 19-June 22, 2023 from 7-9:30pm and they never came out. Just keep that in mind.

[Katie-rxql]

My sister just went to see these as she lives there now. She moved from England. She is seeing a lot of new things that she wouldn't usually see in England. It's amazing 👏 we are visiting at Christmas so will definitely be taking a trip here 😀

[theoverniter]

These bats eat midges, and as someone who once had my feet eaten alive by midges in Austin, I wholeheartedly support their endeavors

[maizenblue]

Best pollinators and seed carriers as well!

[CoopyKat]

I used to go to that bridge to watch the bats when I lived there. I don't blame them for flying south for the winter, Austin can sometimes have FREEZING weather!

[judithhermes]

I read recently that bat guano is somewhat shine from the exoskeletons of the mosquitos that bats feast on.

[katsview]

Awesome video and interesting information! Thank you for sharing...

[hasanatseeker]

Such a beautiful creation from our maker!

[NonfictionFilmmaker]

Great vid but you are wrong about why the bat is feature on Bacardi rum. After el señor barcardi stole the recipe for rum from the company that creates legendario rum and flee from Cuba to Puerto Rico he need a place to make the rum the first place he could find was infested with bats

[JeremyHall]

imagine the bug invested Austin without 30k tons of dead insects per night. thank you bats

[stephenfitzpatrick]

Spent over an hour waiting in vain last night for these!

[Megapixel]

I wanted to confirm a fact that I had heard that bats are the fastest flying animals (in a straight line parallel to the ground, which is how we should measure flight speed anyway) and yeah those are definitely the fastest. I thought the video was sped up!

[SamuelMiller-qfqi]

They love themself some chimneys too if you have one

[mrstedrow]

I have been seeing alot of bats flying around in the neighborhood i live in, in the middle of the day. I thought bats only came out at night??

[blastermaster]

Makes you wonder if the bats in Gotham(yeah fictional city) appreciates their local bat population.

[rastgeleisler]

Oh My God This is looks like you're in Gotham City

[brianplunkett]

I went this evening. I didn’t like the crowds, also it was too dark, and boats had to shine lights on the bridge to see the bats. Lame. They’re other options with a better experience.

[skabsence]

Missed opportunity to say “holy tourism batman”