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Darren Naish wrote:
"These observations imply that birds outcompete
diurnal bats when the
two coexist... maybe this is because bat flight apparatus is more fragile than feathers or, more reasonably, that bats are inherently constrained by their thermoregulatory abilities (bats overheat quicker in sunlight and cool quicker in cold air than birds - obviously because of their largely naked patagia). Could the same have been at all true of pterosaurs?" I believe birds do better than bats in daylight
because birds rely on vision whereas bats rely on echolocation. Echolocation is
neither as acute nor as effective as seeing, if one has good eyes. Birds
certainly have very good eyes. However, in darkness, where nothing can be seen,
echolocation is better than eyesight, so the bats have managed to fill the
nocturnal niches.
Best wishes,
Henri Rönkkö
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