Eristalis stipator
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
Eristalis stipator, the yellow-shouldered drone fly, is a species of hoverfly native to North America. It is abundant in western North America, with a few scattered records in the east. It flies from mid-May (or as early as February in the south of its range) to early November, and is known to hilltop.
E. stipator varies in appearance, with darker individuals sometimes resembling E. dimidiata, and males sometimes resembling species such as E. arbustorum or E. hirta. The wings are hyaline, with small brown pterostigma, with the basal half of their wings reddish-brown in color. Their third tergite is shiny black, and they have long white setae on the fourth tergite, forming a distinct band in front of the posterior margin of the tergite. Their setae give the appearance of coming to a point in the center of the third and fourth tergites. Females have a frons that is entirely silvery-white, except for a black median stripe, running from the base of their antennae to the end of the head. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Padre Island National Seashore | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Death Valley National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Grand Canyon National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Joshua Tree National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Rocky Mountain National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Saguaro National Park | 🇺🇸 United States |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Minneapolis [Saint Paul] | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Dallas | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Austin | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Denver | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Phoenix | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Edmonton | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 7 | Mesa | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Chicago | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Calgary | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 10 | Sacramento | 🇺🇸 United States |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-Shouldered Drone Fly sighting in Grand Canyon National Park on a given day, based on 7 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 95th most-seen of the 143 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 and July–September
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-Shouldered Drone Fly in Grand Canyon National Park on a given day, against under 5% in May–June and October–March, the lowest months.
Between noon and 3 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Yellow-Shouldered Drone Fly sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Among the best
Of the 6 parks where we can rate Yellow-Shouldered Drone Fly sightings, Grand Canyon National Park ranks 3rd at about 10%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Padre Island National Seashore (United States, about 10%) and Death Valley National Park (United States, about 10%).
Same family: Syrphidae
The closest relatives of the Yellow-Shouldered Drone Fly that you can see in Grand Canyon National Park (family Syrphidae, Hover Flies) are Large-Tailed Aphideater (about 10%), Common Loopwing Aphideater (about 10%) and Yellow-Spotted Bromeliad Fly (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Yellow-Shouldered Drone Fly is recorded against all the insects logged in Grand Canyon National Park (7 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.
