Bombus sylvarum
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
Bombus sylvarum, the shrill carder bee or knapweed carder-bee, is a species of bumblebee with a wide distribution across Europe, east to the Ural Mountains, and north to Great Britain, Ireland, and southern Scandinavia.
It is called the "shrill carder" because the pitch of its buzzing is more shrill than other bees and it is a carder bee – making its nest by carding material into a fabric. It is a small bumblebee; queens are 16–18 mm (0.63–0.71 in) long and female workers are 10–15 mm (0.39–0.59 in). It is mostly pale yellowish in colour with a black band across the thorax, two black bands across the abdomen, and an orange tip to the abdomen. It flies rapidly and queens produce a high-pitched buzz.
The flight period lasts from about April to September. The queen bee emerges from hibernation in the spring. She makes a nest on or slightly below the surface of the ground among open vegetation. An old mouse or vole nest may be used. By summer, the nest may contain around 100 worker bees. Each nest requires about 10 km2 (3.9 sq mi) of suitable habitat.
It occurs in herb-rich grassland where it feeds on nectar and pollen from a variety of flowers, especially... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aigüestortes National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 2 | Fertő-Hanság National Park | 🇭🇺 Hungary | |
| 3 | Bavarian Forest National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 4 | Pyrénées National Park | 🇫🇷 France |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Shrill Carder-Bumble Bee sighting in Bavarian Forest National Park on a given day, based on 13 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 436th most-seen of the 1115 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April–May and July–September
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Shrill Carder-Bumble Bee in Bavarian Forest National Park on a given day, against under 5% in June and October–March, the lowest months.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Shrill Carder-Bumble Bee sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Among the best
Of the 4 parks where we can rate Shrill Carder-Bumble Bee sightings, Bavarian Forest National Park ranks 3rd at about 10%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Aigüestortes National Park (Spain, about 10%) and Fertő-Hanság National Park (Hungary, about 10%).
Same genus: Bombus
The closest relatives of the Shrill Carder-Bumble Bee that you can see in Bavarian Forest National Park (genus Bombus, Bumble Bees) are Common Carder Bumble Bee (about 20%), Early Bumble Bee (about 10%) and Red-Tailed Bumble Bee (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Shrill Carder-Bumble Bee is recorded against all the insects logged in Bavarian Forest National Park (13 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
