Congress Bridge bats
A million and a half bats pour out from under the bridge every summer evening, in one black column.
Duration
1 hr – 1 hr 30 min
Best time
Twenty minutes before dusk, May to October
Open
Every day
Entry price
Free
The Congress Bridge bat colony arrived by accident: the bridge's 1980 rebuild created crevices under the deck of exactly the right dimensions for Mexican free-tailed bats. They moved in on their own.
There are now around one and a half million of them in summer, the largest urban colony in the world. They emerge every evening at dusk, in a black column that takes some twenty minutes to pass, and eat several tonnes of insects a night. The city first tried to get rid of them, then made them an emblem.
Getting there
Congress Avenue bridge, over Lady Bird Lake. Watch from the bridge itself, from the east bank or from a boat.
Hours
March to October, at dusk
Rules on site
The bats migrate to Mexico for the winter: from November to March there is nothing to see. The emergence time varies nightly and is published — check it, as it shifts by tens of minutes with the season.