Syritta pipiens
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
Syritta pipiens, sometimes called the thick-legged hoverfly, is one of the most common species in the insect family Syrphidae. This fly originates from Europe and is currently distributed across Eurasia and North America. They are fast and nimble fliers, and their larvae are found in wet, rotting organic matter such as garden compost, manure, and silage. The species is also commonly found in human-created environments such as most farmland, gardens, and urban parks, wherever there are flowers. This species is an important part of its native ecosystem as adult Syritta pipiens flies are critical pollinators for a variety of flowering plants and the species supports parasitism by various parasitic wasp species. Thus, they play an important role in environmental functionality, and can serve as bio-indicators, in which their abundance can reflect the health of the environment. Syritta pipiens looks like many predatory hoverfly species, yet is not predatory.
The species Syritta pipiens is within the family of Syrphidae, commonly called hover or flower flies. Syrphidae is one of the largest families within the Diptera order and contains about 6,000 known species widely distributed... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Acadia National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Camargue | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 3 | Snowdonia National Park | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 4 | Great Bear Rainforest | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 5 | Wadden Sea National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 6 | Bavarian Forest National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 7 | Shenandoah National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Pyrénées National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 9 | Yellowstone National Park | 🇺🇸 United States |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Birmingham | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 2 | London | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 3 | Liverpool | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 4 | Manchester | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 5 | Jerusalem | 🇮🇱 Israel | |
| 6 | Boston | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Kharkiv | 🇺🇦 Ukraine | |
| 8 | Warsaw | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 9 | Algiers | 🇩🇿 Algeria | |
| 10 | Budapest | 🇭🇺 Hungary |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Thick-Legged Hover Fly sighting in Great Bear Rainforest on a given day, based on 17 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 83rd most-seen of the 235 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.
May–September and November
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Thick-Legged Hover Fly in Great Bear Rainforest on a given day, against under 5% in October and December–April, the lowest months.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Thick-Legged Hover 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 9 parks where we can rate Thick-Legged Hover Fly sightings, Great Bear Rainforest ranks 4th at about 10%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Acadia National Park (United States, about 10%), Camargue (France, about 10%) and Snowdonia National Park (United Kingdom, about 10%).
Same family: Syrphidae
The closest relatives of the Thick-Legged Hover Fly that you can see in Great Bear Rainforest (family Syrphidae, Hover Flies) are Western Pond Fly (about 20%), Melanostoma mellina (about 20%) and Common Drone Fly (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Thick-Legged Hover Fly is recorded against all the insects logged in Great Bear Rainforest (17 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.
