Common noctule

This nocturnal, aerial invertivore lives in forest habitats. It has a gestation period of 66.12 days and one litter per year, and it is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, not a threatened category.

Weight

19.4 g – 28 gsrc for Weight

Length

Not recorded

Wingspan

34.4 cmsrc for Wingspan

Lifespan

12 years – 22.7 yearssrc for Lifespan

Diet

Invertivoresrc for Diet

Main food

Not recorded

Habitat

forestsrc for Habitat

Gestation

66.1 dayssrc for Gestation

Young per litter or clutch

1.17src for Young per litter or clutch

Age at maturity

13.6 months – 15 monthssrc for Age at maturity

Litters or clutches a year

1src for Litters or clutches a year

Active

At night (nocturnal)src for Active

Lifestyle

Aerialsrc for Lifestyle

Conservation status

Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status

Countries on record

Not recorded

Not recorded

The common noctule 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.

1. kingdomAnimalia
2. phylumChordata
3. classMammalia
4. orderChiroptera
5. familyVespertilionidae
6. genusNyctalus
7. SpeciesNyctalus noctula (Schreber, 1774)

Synonyms Nyctalus altivolans, Nyctalus lardarius, Nyctalus magnus, Nyctalus minima, Nyctalus noctula princeps, Nyctalus palustris, Nyctalus princeps, Nyctalus proterus, Vespertilio altivolans, Vespertilio lardarius, Vespertilio major, Vespertilio proterus, Vespertilio rufescens, Vespertilios noctula, Vesperugo magnus, Vesperugo minima, Vesperugo palustris

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistTAXREFWikidataWoRMSIUCN Red List

CompareCommon noctule vs Leisler's batCommon noctule vs Giant noctuleCommon noctule vs Birdlike noctuleCommon noctule vs Azorean bat

• An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
  Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1
• Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
  Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf
• Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
  Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence).
• EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
  Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1
• Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
  Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service).
• Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
  Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).

@misc{common_noctule_2026,
  title = {Common noctule (Nyctalus noctula)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/common-noctule},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}