Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge (bat colony)

The Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge is home to a large maternity colony of Mexican free-tailed bats; estimates of the colony size commonly exceed one million bats at peak season. From spring through early fall the bats emerge each evening at dusk in a mass flight that draws researchers and tourists. The nightly emergence has become a well-known urban wildlife attraction supported by guided bat-watching tours and scientific study.