Shrill Carder-Bumble Bee

Shrill Carder-Bumble Bee

Bombus sylvarum

Daily sighting probability <5% · Rare
at Berlin

In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%

19 Verified sightings at Berlin
42 In all 4 parks From 2019 to 2026
August Best month
☀️ Diurnal When it's spotted

About the Shrill Carder-Bumble Bee

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 →

Global Distribution

Parks Where Found

# Park Country Daily sighting probability
1 Aigüestortes National Park 🇪🇸 Spain
~10%
2 Fertő-Hanság National Park 🇭🇺 Hungary
~10%
3 Bavarian Forest National Park 🇩🇪 Germany
~10%
4 Pyrénées National Park 🇫🇷 France
<5%

Cities Where Found

# City Country Daily sighting probability
1 Warsaw 🇵🇱 Poland
~10%
2 Helsinki 🇫🇮 Finland
~10%
3 Munich 🇩🇪 Germany
~10%
4 Berlin 🇩🇪 Germany
<5%
5 Saint Petersburg 🇷🇺 Russia
<5%
6 Moscow 🇷🇺 Russia
<5%
7 Prague 🇨🇿 Czechia
<5%
8 Vienna 🇦🇹 Austria
<5%
9 London 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
<5%

Before you go

What are the chances of seeing a Shrill Carder-Bumble Bee in Berlin?

Rare

Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Shrill Carder-Bumble Bee sighting in Berlin on a given day, based on 19 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 400th most-seen of the 1065 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.

When is the best time to see a Shrill Carder-Bumble Bee in Berlin?

April and July–August

In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Shrill Carder-Bumble Bee in Berlin on a given day, against under 5% in May–June and September–March, the lowest months.

What time of day is best to see a Shrill Carder-Bumble Bee?

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.

Is Berlin the best place to see a Shrill Carder-Bumble Bee?

4th of 9

Of the 9 cities where we can rate Shrill Carder-Bumble Bee sightings, Berlin ranks 4th at under 5%. The best odds are in Warsaw (Poland, about 10%), Helsinki (Finland, about 10%) and Munich (Germany, about 10%).

Where does the Shrill Carder-Bumble Bee sighting chance come from?

GBIF citizen-science records

It is estimated from how often the Shrill Carder-Bumble Bee is recorded against all the insects logged in Berlin (19 verified sightings), 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.

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