They’re around our buildings and in our back yards, some as small as walnuts: as the weather warms up, bats become more active.

Australia is home to more than 90 bat species, and for many, spring marks the start of bat baby season – when mothers need more food to support themselves and their pups.

Most people associate bats in the city with flying foxes, also known as fruit bats, which often roost in large camps in urban environments, says Dr Shannon Currie, an ecophysiologist at the University of Melbourne, who studies how animals survive and adapt to their environments.

“But there is also a whole slew of different tiny little bats, which Australians call microbats,” she says. They eat insects and roost under tree bark, in hollows, caves and even some buildings.

“They’re in your back yard, they’re around your workplace. You just can’t see them because they’re tiny.”

Some, like the little forest bat, can be as small as a walnut, while the wingspan of grey-headed flying foxes can reach more than 1 metre.

For our nocturnal neighbours, small changes can make a big difference – here’s how you can help.

Turn off and tone down outdoor lights

If you live in any capital city in Australia, you’re coexisting with microbats – “fascinating, cool little animals that not many people know exist,” says urban wildlife ecologist, Dr Kaori Yokochi of Deakin University.

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But if you pay close enough attention, she says, you might see them doing acrobatics at dusk, or find them sleeping under the cover of an outdoor umbrella.

All bats are nocturnal, waking at dusk. Bright lights at night can mean less time and fewer places to feed, and also affect navigation and roosting.

Some bats will avoid lit areas, especially if they aren’t fast flyers, because it puts them at risk of becoming prey, Yokochi says. Artificial light acts as a “double whammy” for those species – drawing insects to lit areas, and reducing the darker spaces available for foraging.

“They’re small flying mammals; they actually need to eat a lot,” she says. “They can eat up to 40-50% of their body weight a night.”

But small changes can make a positive difference, Yokochi says. “If you’re using light indoors at night, close the curtains so the light is not spilling outside the house,” she says.

A grey-headed flying fox eating flower nectar, with its head covered in yellow pollen. Flying foxes can traverse the entire coast of Australia. Photograph: Andrew Mercer/Wikimedia

Limit outdoor lighting to only what is needed, so it’s not encroaching on other areas – have it just around the doorway, not all throughout your garden, for example.

Choose globes with lower lux levels and warmer colours – orange or red is better than cool white or blue. Install lights at low levels, facing downwards.

Bats are our neighbours, Yokochi says, and we should be mindful of them. A lot of festive dates like Halloween, Christmas and New Year in Australia fall during warmer months, when microbats are more active – so instead of outdoor fairy lights, consider another type of decoration.

Native gardens support biodiversity, including bats

“One of the things that is most beneficial is to have diverse native gardens,” Currie says. Planting a variety of native species, especially those local to the area, will help insects as well as bats, birds and other wildlife.

Improving our relationship with insects can also be helpful, says Currie. Diversity is critical to insect-eating microbats, which rely on different kinds of insects depending on the season – when they’re having pups, or fattening up for winter.

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A bee hotel – in a garden, on a windowsill, or balcony – can provide a resting or nesting place for local invertebrates and native bees, and help boost local insect populations. Make your own by drilling holes into native hardwood, or bundle up hollow reeds.

“If you’re lucky enough to have any mature trees in your back yard, please retain them,” says Yokochi.

Many Australian bat species nest in tree bark or hollows. Flowering gums provide food for flying foxes, while trees and shrubs support flying insects and sometimes have hollows for roosting.

If you need to use netting for fruit trees, Yokochi says, make sure it’s safe for wildlife. Bats, particularly flying foxes, can get tangled in netting and die. “If you can poke your finger through your netting, that is not safe. Smaller mesh – less than 5mm – is best.”

Flying foxes have really good eyesight, she says, so white netting is preferable to black or green, because it is more visible.

If you find a sick, injured or orphaned bat, never try to touch or rescue it yourself. Instead, contact your nearest wildlife rescue organisation.

Where can I learn more?

For those who want to learn more, the Australasian Bat Society organises events and bat nights across the country.

Landowners in New South Wales can volunteer to install bat detectors on their properties for collecting data on the habitat and range of threatened bats, or volunteer to count flying foxes.

While some species, like the white-striped freetail bat, make noises we can hear, most bat calls are too high frequency for humans to detect. Bat detectors that can be plugged into your smartphone are also becoming readily available and more affordable, which can help identify the species in your back yard – even if you can’t hear or see them.

“They’re amazingly intelligent creatures,” Currie says. “They can fly crazy distances – they know how to get home from hundreds of kilometres away.”

Flying foxes can traverse the entire coast of Australia, while even tiny southern bent-wing bats – roughly the size of a matchbox – can fly as far as 150km in a single night.

If you look up in the sky at dusk, you might see them flying around. “Microbats can be really amazing acrobats,” Yokochi says. “So you’ll see them … doing real cool loops, and trying to catch insects.”