In Spain there is a lot of information and studies about bats. There some forest specialist as some Plecotus and Myotis. A good book is "atlas y libro rojo de mamíferos terrestres" (atlas and redbook of terretrial mamals), that includes bats. Yo can rea about the ecology of all the species, and is free on internte (edited by Environment Ministry). Of course it is in spanish. The website is: http://www.magrama.gob.es/es/biodiversidad/temas/inventarios-nacionales/inventario-especies-terrestres/inventario-nacional-de-biodiversidad/ieet_mamif_atlas.aspx

I know a little note of Eurobat. you can find some data

http://www.eurobats.org/sites/default/files/documents/pdf/Advisory_Committee/StC4_AC15_Doc_28_Rev1_ReportIWGFeeding.pdf

Thanks everyone, that helps !

Be careful you completely understand the differences between the percieved preferences we may belive bats to have for some habitats, their actual preferences, their choices in heavily managed landscapes in Europe, and your unspecified scientific question.  Also be alert to the concept that unlike many bird species where their reproductive (i.e. population) processes occur within a few 100s of meters of a nest and completely within the scope of one or two similar habitats, bat behaviour is generally at much larger spatial scales and requires them to exploit a diversity of habiats to maintain their populations - there are exceptions (typically extreme specialists such as Myotis bechsteinii) but they are relatively unusual.  In those cases it is more helpful to think about their habitat requirements / use rather than the less informative 'preference'.  Also note that in almost all studies describing preferences, that inference is conditional, the sampling base is weak and the classification of different habitat types by researchers is subjective and extremely variable.

James

Dear James,

thanks for your answer, I have all your comments in mind and I agree that ecology of bats is much more complex and problematic than that of many other species groups. One can even think of making several lists of species with respect to their foraging habitat / roosting habitat and specify their use within a specific habitat regarding a specific function...

Anyway, my scientific question is not really the point here, I just try to analyse my data by ecological groups (e.g. forest specialists) rather than by whole communities which could help verify specific hypotheses. I have already a list (more or less valid for e.g. birds, vascular plants... and more or less based on a statistical approach and expertise, but at least referenced) and I was interested in analysing also such groups for bats, even roughly, but on a (somewhat) referenced list.

Best, Yoan.

Hi.

For bat preferences of habitat you can see the information contained in two recent books on the species living in Europe and nearby areas:

DIETZ, C., O. von HELVERSEN & D. NILL (2009). Bats of Britain, Europe & Northwest Africa. A & C Black. London. 400 pp. 

DIETZ, C. & A. KIEFER (2014). Die Fledermäuse Europas. Kosmos. Stuttgart. 394 pp. 

Hi again.

It may also be useful the next reference, devoted to Italian bats:

LANZA, B. (2012). Fauna d'Italia, Volume 47: Mammalia. V: Chiroptera. Ed. Calderini. Bologna. 786 pp. 

It contains a lot of information about all the species of bats living in this country. 

Thanks !

I have obtained (finally) a copy of the excellent book of LANZA (2012) about Italian bats, and I have seen that there is a lot of information on the subject, including a summarized table with all the European species and their refuges (in summer and in winter). On the other hand, the bibliography cited in this monograph is very extensive and useful...

Hi again.

Another interesting source of information is the next book, a monograph on the bat fauna of Spain:

BENZAL, J. & Ó. de PAZ (eds.) (1991). Los murciélagos de España y Portugal. ICONA, Colección Técnica. Madrid. 330 pp. + photos. 

Hi Ruben, thanks for your contribution to this quesiton. Could you tell me where did you get the copies of the book(s) you cited. Although I am not that fluent in spanish or italian, I guess I could manage some translations. Thnaks in advance. Yoan.

Hi Yoan,

here are three German publications on the topic (however written in German). Please tell be if you need some help with the translation. Maybe you should also contact the bat expert Markus Dietz (http://www.tieroekologie.com/itn/dr-markus-dietz/).

Dietz, M (2007) Naturwaldreservate in Hessen. Bd 10. Ergebnisse fledermauskundlicher Untersuchungen in hessischen Naturwaldreservaten. Mitteilungen der Hessischen Landesforstverwaltung 43: 1 - 70

https://www.nw-fva.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Sachgebiet/Waldnaturschutz_Naturwald/10_NRW_Flederm%C3%A4use.pdf

--> pp 50-53

Landesbetrieb Mobilität Rheinland-Pfalz (Ed.) (2011): Fledermaus-Handbuch LBM - Entwicklung methodischer Standards zur Erfassung von Fledermäusen im Rahmen von Straßenprojekten in Rheinland-Pfalz. Koblenz.

http://hochmoseluebergang.rlp.de/pdf/Landespflege/Handbuch_Fledermaeuse_LBM_2011-03-24.pdf

--> pp 23-26

Schmidt, M. & Meyer, P. (Ed.); Blick, T.; Dietz, M.; Dorow, W. H. O., Kopelke, J-P., Meyer, P., Schmidt, M. & Teuber, D. (Text) (2010): Hessische Naturwaldreservate im Portrait. Das Naturwaldreservate-Programm. 3. Auflage, aktualisiert und stark überarbeitet. Göttingen: Nordwestdeutsche Forstliche Versuchsanstalt (NW-FVA) & Kassel: Landesbetrieb Hessen-Forst (Hrsg.). 40 S.

https://www.nw-fva.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Sachgebiet/Waldnaturschutz_Naturwald/NWR2010_Internet.pdf

--> p 29

Best regards,

Andreas

Hi again.

A recent small book on the bats of Estonia may be of interest:

MASING, M. (2015). Bats of Estonia and adjacent regions. Sicista Development Centre. Haapsalu and Tartu. 116 pp.

It's a very nice and useful overview of the bat fauna of this country, with some information on habitat, ecology and biology of the different species present there.

Hi again.

It may be good to check the new, very recent edition of the large and dense book of Dietz et al.:

DIETZ, C., D. NILL & O. von HELVERSEN (2016). Handbuch der Fledermäuse. Europa und Nordwestafrika. Kosmos-Naturführer. Kosmos. Stuttgart. 416 pp.

I think it has been translated to English. I consider this book as a master reference about the bat fauna of Europe and North Africa. 

Best regards. 

Great, I'll check that. Thanks Ruben for making this thread living !

Regards