Bombus flavifrons
In 3 days ~60% in a week ~90%
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 30% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-Fronted Bumble Bee sighting in Great Bear Rainforest on a given day, based on 201 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the most-seen of the 235 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 60%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
July
In that month about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-Fronted Bumble Bee in Great Bear Rainforest on a given day, against under 5% in November to February, the lowest months. That is one of Great Bear Rainforest's driest months, with about 120 mm of rain against 480 mm in November.
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.
3rd of 12
Of the 12 parks where we can rate Yellow-Fronted Bumble Bee sightings, Great Bear Rainforest ranks 3rd at about 30%. The best odds are in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park (United States, about 40%) and Kluane National Park (Canada, about 40%). All parks ranked.
Same genus: Bombus
The closest relatives of the Yellow-Fronted Bumble Bee that you can see in Great Bear Rainforest (genus Bombus, Bumble Bees) are Sitka Bumble Bee (about 20%), Black-Tailed Bumble Bee (about 20%) and Vancouver Bumble Bee (about 10%), 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 Great Bear Rainforest (201 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.
