Brown-Belted Bumble Bee

Brown-Belted Bumble Bee

Bombus griseocollis

Daily sighting probability ~20% · Possible
at Denver

In 3 days ~50% in a week ~80%

483 Verified sightings at Denver
233 In all 6 parks From 2019 to 2026
July Best month
☀️ Diurnal When it's spotted

About the Brown-Belted Bumble Bee

Bombus griseocollis is a species of bumblebee known commonly as the brown-belted bumblebee. It is native to much of the United States except for the Southwest, and to the southernmost regions of several of the provinces of Canada.

The queen is 2.1 to 2.3 centimeters long and about a centimeter wide at the abdomen. Its head and face are black with scattered yellow hairs. The thorax is coated in yellow hairs. The abdomen is yellow banded with black, with a black posterior and black ventral surface. The legs are black.

Workers are smaller than the queen, sometimes less than a centimeter long. They are similar in color pattern, but may have a brown-yellow band around the abdomen. Males are about 1.5 to 1.9 centimeters long and about 0.7 centimeters wide at the abdomen. They have very large eyes that span about two thirds the width of the head. The face and thorax have yellow hairs and the abdomen is banded with yellow, yellow-brown, and black.

Eggs are white, robust, and slightly curved. The average length is 2.91 mm with a range of 2.8–3.1 mm and the diameter range is 0.8–1.00 mm. This bumblebee can occupy many kinds of habitat, including meadows, wetlands... Wikipedia →

Global Distribution

Parks Where Found

# Park Country Daily sighting probability
1 Badlands National Park 🇺🇸 United States
~30%
2 Riding Mountain National Park 🇨🇦 Canada
~20%
3 Shenandoah National Park 🇺🇸 United States
~20%
4 Great Smoky Mountains National Park 🇺🇸 United States
~10%
5 Point Pelee National Park 🇨🇦 Canada
~10%
6 Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge 🇺🇸 United States
<5%

Cities Where Found

# City Country Daily sighting probability
1 Minneapolis [Saint Paul] 🇺🇸 United States
~40%
2 Boston 🇺🇸 United States
~30%
3 Salt Lake City 🇺🇸 United States
~20%
4 Montreal 🇨🇦 Canada
~20%
5 Philadelphia 🇺🇸 United States
~20%
6 New York City 🇺🇸 United States
~20%
7 Toronto 🇨🇦 Canada
~20%
8 Chicago 🇺🇸 United States
~20%
9 Denver 🇺🇸 United States
~20%
10 Washington 🇺🇸 United States
~20%

Before you go

What are the chances of seeing a Brown-Belted Bumble Bee in Denver?

Possible

About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Brown-Belted Bumble Bee sighting in Denver on a given day, based on 483 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 8th most-seen of the 461 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 50%, and over a week to about 80%, if each day is a fresh chance.

When is the best time to see a Brown-Belted Bumble Bee in Denver?

July and August

In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Brown-Belted Bumble Bee in Denver on a given day, against under 5% in November to April, the lowest months. Those are among Denver's wettest months, with about 55 mm of rain a month against 15 mm in January.

What time of day is best to see a Brown-Belted Bumble Bee?

Between 10 am and 1 pm

Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Brown-Belted Bumble Bee sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.

Is Denver the best place to see a Brown-Belted Bumble Bee?

9th of 15

Of the 15 cities where we can rate Brown-Belted Bumble Bee sightings, Denver ranks 9th at about 20%. The best odds are in Minneapolis [Saint Paul] (United States, about 40%), Boston (United States, about 30%) and Salt Lake City (United States, about 20%).

Which relatives of the Brown-Belted Bumble Bee live in Denver?

Same genus: Bombus

The closest relatives of the Brown-Belted Bumble Bee that you can see in Denver (genus Bombus, Bumble Bees) are Hunt's Bumble Bee (about 20%), Golden Northern Bumble Bee (about 20%) and American Bumble Bee (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.

Where does the Brown-Belted Bumble Bee sighting chance come from?

GBIF citizen-science records

It is estimated from how often the Brown-Belted Bumble Bee is recorded against all the insects logged in Denver (483 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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