Bat Coloring Pages

Bats are the Halloween animal that turns out to be far more interesting than the decorations suggest. These bat coloring pages have both: the cute bats that go on a spooky window in October, and the real bats that hunt moths over the pond all summer.

The real bats come first. A fruit bat hangs from a fig branch with its wings wrapped around it like a cloak, a colony streams out of a cave at sunset, a single bat flies under the stars with every finger bone drawn, another drinks nectar from a cactus flower, and a bat chases a moth over a pond. A mother flies across a field with her pup clinging on, a baby bat sleeps in a nest of leaves inside a tree hollow, and a leaf-nosed bat fills a whole page with its huge ears. Bats roost where they can: in the rafters of a barn, the hollow of a tree, among the stalactites of a cave, on the beams of a covered bridge, from a line across a porch, and on an ivy-covered gate. They fly under a stone bridge, over the forest, over a field of lavender, past a lighthouse, around a bell tower, through a cloud of fireflies and above the desert dunes.

The cute bats are for younger colorers and for October: a chibi bat in a flowered teacup, a bat on a jack o'lantern, a bat on a scarecrow's shoulder, a bat in a knitted scarf on a snowy branch, a bat carrying a bundle of apples, a bat hanging from a garden swing and from an umbrella on a rainy porch, a bat sharing a picnic table with a watermelon slice, one sitting on a mushroom, one peering into a birdhouse far too small, and one floating over a hedge maze holding a balloon. A zentangle bat, a bat and moon mandala and a border of bats and crescent moons finish the set.

A flying hand

Bats are the only mammals that can truly fly, not glide. Their wing is a hand: the same bones as in our fingers, grown very long, with a thin skin stretched between them. That is why the scientific name for bats means "hand wing", and why the flying bat on these pages shows its fingers clearly through the wing. Look closely and there is a small thumb with a claw at the top of each wing, which bats use to climb and hold on.

They hang upside down because it lets them take off simply by letting go. A bat's legs are too weak to run and jump into the air like a bird, but dropping from a ceiling gives it all the speed it needs.

Not blind, and very useful

The saying "blind as a bat" is wrong: bats can see. Many kinds also find their way in the dark by echolocation, sending out high calls and listening for the echoes that bounce back from insects and branches. A small bat can catch hundreds of mosquitoes and moths in a single night, which makes bats very welcome near a garden. Fruit bats, like the one on the fig branch, do a different job: they carry pollen from flower to flower and drop seeds far from the tree, and many tropical fruits, including bananas and mangoes, depend on them in the wild.

Colors for real bats and Halloween bats

• Most real bats are brown, from warm chestnut to dark chocolate, often with a lighter belly. Their wings are a darker gray-brown and a little see-through, so color them lighter where the light shines through.
• Fruit bats are often golden or reddish around the neck and shoulders, with a dark body.
• Halloween bats can be anything: black with orange eyes, purple with green wings, or pale gray against an orange moon.
• For night skies, use deep blue or purple instead of black, and leave the moon white or pale yellow.

Cute bats and cave scenes

The simplest pages keep one bat large on a light background, like the baby bat in its nest and the leaf-nosed portrait. Quick to color, above the grid, begins with:

• Baby bat asleep
• Leaf-nosed bat portrait
• Bats leaving a cave at dusk

The detailed ones are full of brickwork, beams and patterns, the bridge, the bell tower and the mandala. Lots of detail begins with:

• Bat under a stone bridge
• Bat at the bell tower
• Bats on the porch

A colony for the window

For October, color several of the flying bats in black or dark purple, cut them out and tape them in a swirling line across a window, as if a colony were leaving the cave. With light coming through the glass in the evening, the shapes show from the street. Bat Week, held every year from October 24 to 31, is a good excuse: pair the window with a few of the facts on this page, read aloud at dinner.

Printing a colony

Each page is a free PDF drawn on A4 at 300 dpi. A4 prints at full size, and on US Letter "fit to page" makes the drawing about six percent smaller so no wingtip is cut. The printing guide shows the setting. Add to pack gathers a colony into one file. The season continues in the Halloween coloring pages, the pumpkin coloring pages and the ghost coloring pages, and every other creature is in the animal coloring pages.