A 1611 painting by Flemish artist Jan Brueghel the Elder provides the first known visual evidence of noctule bats hunting birds in mid-air, according to a study published in Science News. The work, titled Air, depicts a greater noctule bat with a songbird in its jaws, predating modern scientific confirmation of the behavior by over 400 years.
How Brueghel’s ‘Air’ captured noctule predation
The oil painting, currently held at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon in France, serves as an allegorical representation of the element of air. It features the Greek muse Urania surrounded by a massive menagerie of flying creatures. While the canvas is filled with parrots, swans, and ostriches, a specific detail in the upper right corner has drawn the attention of modern ecologists.
A bat, identified by its reddish-brown fur, round ears, and long wings, is shown clamped firmly around a small bird. According to ScienceAlert, the size and coloration of the animal identify it as a noctule bat of the genus Nyctalus, specifically the greater noctule (Nyctalus lasiopterus).
The precision of the depiction is a hallmark of Brueghel’s style. Unlike many Renaissance painters who relied on written descriptions to create fantastical animals, Brueghel often painted from life. He had access to the extensive menageries of Archduke Albert and Infanta Isabella, where he observed exotic species from the Americas and Asia.
The researchers noted that this specific behavior is not present in every version of the painting.
“Several versions of Air were produced – by Brueghel or apprentices – and only the version analyzed here includes the scene of noctule predation,” researchers wrote in the PNAS paper.
The gap between Renaissance art and modern biologging
For centuries, the idea of bats hunting birds was considered rare or nonexistent. It wasn’t until 2025 that scientists fully confirmed that greater noctule bats snack on migratory passerines while flying in mid-air, as reported by ScienceAlert.
This modern confirmation required a suite of high-tech tools that did not exist in the 17th century:
- 3D biologging tags for movement monitoring
- Acoustic sensors to track hunting calls
- Altitude and movement monitoring equipment
Despite the lack of technology, the evidence of this diet had been leaking into the scientific record for decades. In 2001, an analysis of bat droppings revealed bird feathers, a finding detailed by Nautilus. More recently, Ilias Foskolos, a bioacoustician at Aarhus University, has recorded the sounds of these bats catching and dismembering songbirds at high altitudes.
Observational evidence vs. symbolic art
A central question for the researchers was how Brueghel knew to paint a nocturnal, high-altitude event. The study authors suggest the artist may have witnessed a rare daytime occurrence or heard reports of the behavior. Because bird feathers in bat droppings are physical evidence, it is possible that people in the 1600s were aware of the diet through observation of waste.
The researchers argue that this was not a creative whim or a symbolic choice. In allegorical paintings, artists often include mythical or symbolic elements, but the specificity of the species here points to a different origin.
“However, the fact that a noctule bat, and no other bat species, is represented in the scene suggests an observational inspiration rather than purely symbolic convention.”Researchers, via PNAS
Brueghel’s familiarity with the species likely grew during his time in Italy, where the greater noctule bat is more prevalent than in his native Belgium.
The scientific value of historical art collections
This discovery is part of a broader effort by Pedro Romero-Vidal, an ecologist at the Doñana Biological Station in Seville, to use historical art as a tool for understanding historical ecology. By identifying species—particularly parrots and monkeys—in centuries-old paintings, researchers can track when certain animals spread across Europe.
The sheer volume of biological data in Air is significant. The painting represents more than 60 species, including nearly 40 native European bird species and at least 14 exotic ones.
| Category | Count/Detail |
|---|---|
| Total Species Represented | 60+ |
| Native European Birds | Nearly 40 |
| Exotic Species | 14+ |
| Predatory Bat Species | 1 (Greater Noctule) |
The project suggests that art museums may hold untapped data for biologists. While artists sometimes take liberties—Urania, the muse of astronomy, is not a biological entity—the commitment to realism in certain works can preserve observations that science overlooks for centuries.
“As the digitization of art collections accelerates and analytical tools continue to advance, the value of these sources to provide valuable data – previously difficult to extract and often overlooked – and complement modern research approaches will notably increase,” researchers wrote in the PNAS paper.
As ecologists continue to cross-reference historical canvases with modern genetic and acoustic data, the 17th-century studio may prove as valuable as the modern field site.
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