Throughout the United States there are some great bat viewing sites.

Zoos include the Philadelphia Zoological Gardens in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This zoo boasts a great colony of Rodrigues fruit bats. Zoo hours are 9:30 am-6 pm all summer long.

The Milwaukee County Zoo in Milwaukee, Wisconsin has straw-colored fruit bats, along with Egyptian fruit bats, and mountain fruit bats. They also have a great vampire bat exhibit with many active common vampires. Zoo hours are 9:00 am-4:30 pm.

The Metro Washington Zoo in Portland, Oregon has a large fruit bat display with bats like the straw-colored flying fox, Rodrigues flying foxes, Egyptian fruit bats, and Jamaican fruit bats. Zoo hours are 9:30 am-6:00 pm, call for winter hours.

In Gainesville, Florida, the Florida Bat House located on the University of Florida’s campus has a colony of Mexican free-tailed bats which call the bat house their home. Each evening at dusk thousands exit from the bat house.

Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico is home to an impressive 250,000 Mexican free-tailed bats that can be seen exiting nightly. The best time to see these bats is in late summer.