It is the most widely distributed of the African fruit bats. The hairs on the neck are longer and more woolly than those on the body, and the interfemoral membrane is hairy in the middle of its upper surface.
Coloration is yellowish brown or brownish above and tawny olive or brownish below.
In contrast to Epomophorus and similar genera, Eidolon has a more pointed head and lacks the white patches at the base of the ear. The wings are long and narrow, adapted to flying long distances. The wings are also used in climbing about branches in the roosts. When hanging by the hind feet, this genus turns the second phalanges of the third and fourth digits inward, so that they fold against the lower surface of the wing, as in the vespertilionid genus Miniopterus. It is gregarious and prefers to roost in tall trees by day but has also been found in lofts and in caves in rocks.