Bombus flavifrons
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
Bombus flavifrons, the yellow-fronted bumble bee or yellowhead bumblebee, is a species of bumblebee. It is native to North America, where it is distributed across much of Canada, Alaska, and the western contiguous United States.
This is a robust bumblebee; the queen has a body length between 13 and 16 mm (0.51 and 0.63 in) and a wingspan of 27 to 34 mm (1.1 to 1.3 in), the male is 11 to 12 mm (0.43 to 0.47 in) in length with a wingspan of 25 to 26 mm (0.98 to 1.02 in), and the workers are 9 to 12 mm (0.35 to 0.47 in) in length and 19 to 27 mm (0.75 to 1.06 in) in wingspan.
The yellow-fronted bumble bee has a dense, untidy fur. The head is yellow with black hairs intermixed on the posterior part, the thorax has a mixed black and yellow colouration, often (always with the queen) with a black, central field. The first two terga (abdominal segments) are yellow, on the females often with a black, central field on terga 1 to 2. Terga 3 and 4 are red, and the tail black, sometimes with yellow fields.
Subspecies Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wrangell-St. Elias National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Kluane National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 3 | Great Bear Rainforest | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 4 | Pacific Rim National Park Reserve | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 5 | Glacier National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Denali National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Olympic National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Grand Teton National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Rocky Mountain National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 11 | Banff National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 12 | Yellowstone National Park | 🇺🇸 United States |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-Fronted Bumble Bee sighting in Glacier National Park on a given day, based on 49 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 23rd most-seen of the 147 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
July and August
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-Fronted Bumble Bee in Glacier National Park on a given day, against under 5% in January–May and September–November, the lowest months. Those are among Glacier National Park's driest months, with about 30 mm of rain a month against 80 mm in February.
Between noon and 3 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Yellow-Fronted 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.
5th of 12
Of the 12 parks where we can rate Yellow-Fronted Bumble Bee sightings, Glacier National Park ranks 5th at about 20%. The best odds are in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park (United States, about 40%), Kluane National Park (Canada, about 40%) and Great Bear Rainforest (Canada, about 30%). All parks ranked.
Same genus: Bombus
The closest relatives of the Yellow-Fronted Bumble Bee that you can see in Glacier National Park (genus Bombus, Bumble Bees) are Vancouver Bumble Bee (about 20%), Black-Tailed Bumble Bee (about 20%) and Fuzzy-Horned Bumble Bee (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Yellow-Fronted Bumble Bee is recorded against all the insects logged in Glacier National Park (49 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.
