Bombus flavifrons
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
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 |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-Fronted Bumble Bee sighting in Olympic National Park on a given day, based on 57 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 25th most-seen of the 207 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.
August
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-Fronted Bumble Bee in Olympic National Park on a given day, against under 5% in October and December–February, the lowest months. That is one of Olympic National Park's driest months, with about 45 mm of rain against 370 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.
7th of 12
Of the 12 parks where we can rate Yellow-Fronted Bumble Bee sightings, Olympic National Park ranks 7th at about 10%. 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 Olympic National Park (genus Bombus, Bumble Bees) are Black-Tailed Bumble Bee (about 20%), Fuzzy-Horned Bumble Bee (about 10%) and Yellowish Cuckoo 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 Olympic National Park (57 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.
