CreatureData

Bat hawk

Macheiramphus alcinus Bonaparte, 1850

LCLeast Concernbirds of prey

The bat hawk (Macheiramphus alcinus) is a species in the family Accipitridae, order Accipitriformes. Recorded adults weigh about 650 g. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.

Bat hawk (Macheiramphus alcinus)
Photo: Johan van Rensburg · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Quick facts about the bat hawk

Weight
650 gsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Wingspan
95 cm – 1.2 msrc for Wingspan
Lifespan
Not recorded
Diet
Carnivoresrc for Diet
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
forestsrc for Habitat
Egg incubation
30 dayssrc for Egg incubation
Young per litter or clutch
1 – 1.25src for Young per litter or clutch
Litters or clutches a year
1src for Litters or clutches a year
Lifestyle
Aerialsrc for Lifestyle
Migration
Sedentarysrc for Migration
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record
1 countrysrc for Countries on record

How big is the bat hawk?

BAT HAWK · WINGSPAN 1.2 MADULT HUMAN · HEIGHT 1.7 M
At 1.2 m, the recorded maximum wingspan of the bat hawk is about 71% of the height of an adult human (1.7 m, a fixed reference used for scale).

Where does the bat hawk live?

Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.

The bat hawk is listed for 1 country.

Australia
  • Listed
  • Not listed
small islands are not drawn at this scale

The same countries as a list

  1. Australia

Listed by: ITIS (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.

What is the bat hawk?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The bat hawk (Macheiramphus alcinus) is a raptor found in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia to New Guinea. It is named for its diet, which consists mainly of bats. It requires open space in which to hunt, but will live anywhere from dense rainforest to semi-arid veld.

From the Wikipedia article “Bat hawk” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bat_hawk&oldid=1379255270), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.

Is the bat hawk endangered?

The bat hawk is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.

  1. LCLeast Concern
  2. NTNear Threatened
  3. VUVulnerable
  4. ENEndangered
  5. CRCritically Endangered
  6. EWExtinct in the Wild
  7. EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species.

How is the bat hawk classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classAves
  4. orderAccipitriformes
  5. familyAccipitridae
  6. genusMacheiramphus
  7. SpeciesMacheiramphus alcinus Bonaparte, 1850

Synonyms Machaerhamphus alcinus, Machaerhamphus alcinus, Macheiramphus alcinus, Macheirhamphus alcinus

Other names and names in other languages (33)
  • VlermuisvalkAfrikaans
  • milà dels ratpenatsCatalan
  • luňák netopýříCzech
  • netopýrář hnědýCzech
  • FlagermusglenteDanish
  • FledermausadlerGerman
  • FledermausaarGerman
  • vespertagloEsperanto
  • Milano murcielagueroSpanish
  • videvikuhaugasEstonian
  • lepakkohaukkaFinnish
  • Alcin des chauves-sourisFrench
  • Faucon des chauves-sourisFrench
  • Milan des chauves-sourisFrench
  • lunja šišmišarkaCroatian
  • Elang kelelawarIndonesian
  • Nibbio dei pipistrelliItalian
  • コウモリダカJapanese
  • plačiažiotis peslysLithuanian
  • HilaMalagasy
  • VleermuiswouwDutch
  • flaggermusglenteNorwegian
  • gackożerPolish
  • gavião-morcegueiroPortuguese
  • Широкоротый коршунRussian
  • netopierar súmračnýSlovak
  • Jastreb koji lovi slepe miševeSerbian
  • fladdermusvråkSwedish
  • เหยี่ยวค้างคาวThai
  • Yarasa ŞahiniTurkish
  • шуліка-широкоротUkrainian
  • 蝠鳶Chinese
  • 食蝠鸢Chinese

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaWikidataIUCN Red List

Relatives of the bat hawk

Other species in the same family Accipitridae.

LC, Least Concern
Black kite (Milvus migrans)

Black kite

Milvus migrans

Accipitridae

CompareBat hawk vs Golden eagleBat hawk vs Eurasian sparrowhawkBat hawk vs Eurasian goshawkBat hawk vs Black kite

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the bat hawk?

An adult bat hawk weighs 650 g and has a wingspan of 95 cm – 1.2 m, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Where does the bat hawk live?

Catalogue of Life checklists list the bat hawk for 1 country: Australia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.

Is the bat hawk endangered?

The bat hawk is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is not currently at risk of extinction.

What kind of animal is the bat hawk?

The bat hawk (Macheiramphus alcinus) belongs to the family Accipitridae in the order Accipitriformes.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Bat hawk (Macheiramphus alcinus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/bat-hawk

MLA

“Bat hawk (Macheiramphus alcinus).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/bat-hawk.

BibTeX
@misc{bat_hawk_2026,
  title = {Bat hawk (Macheiramphus alcinus)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/bat-hawk},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}