Fruit bats

Seeing bats swooping around is always a treat, but a large flock of birds that I noticed at dusk reminded me of the fruit bats that we saw near Periyar National Park, in South India, the winter before last.

Fruit bats at dusk, near Periyar National Park, India; photo T. Spira

They were a regular feature that nature tourists like ourselves watched; we went up to the roof of our (modest) hotel to see them, but the upscale posh hotel nearby advertised watching their evening flight.

We don't have fruit-eating bats in North America, only insect-eating ones. The fruit-eating bats are found in the tropics and semi-tropics (at least, that's what I remember).