Bombus griseocollis
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
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 →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Badlands National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Riding Mountain National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 3 | Shenandoah National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Great Smoky Mountains National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Point Pelee National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 6 | Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge | 🇺🇸 United States |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Minneapolis [Saint Paul] | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Boston | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Salt Lake City | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Montreal | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 5 | Philadelphia | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | New York City | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Toronto | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 8 | Chicago | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Denver | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | Washington | 🇺🇸 United States |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Brown-Belted Bumble Bee sighting in Great Smoky Mountains National Park on a given day, based on 74 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 90th most-seen of the 822 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Brown-Belted Bumble Bee in Great Smoky Mountains National Park on a given day, against under 5% in October to March, the lowest months.
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.
4th of 6
Of the 6 parks where we can rate Brown-Belted Bumble Bee sightings, Great Smoky Mountains National Park ranks 4th at about 10%. The best odds are in Badlands National Park (United States, about 30%), Riding Mountain National Park (Canada, about 20%) and Shenandoah National Park (United States, about 20%).
Same genus: Bombus
The closest relatives of the Brown-Belted Bumble Bee that you can see in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (genus Bombus, Bumble Bees) are Common Eastern Bumble Bee (about 40%), Two-Spotted Bumble Bee (about 10%) and American Bumble Bee (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Brown-Belted Bumble Bee is recorded against all the insects logged in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (74 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.
