Yellow-Fronted Bumble Bee

Yellow-Fronted Bumble Bee

Bombus flavifrons

Daily sighting probability ~20% · Possible
at Pacific Rim National Park Reserve

In 3 days ~50% in a week ~80%

83 Verified sightings at Pacific Rim National Park Reserve From 2019 to 2026
516 In all 12 parks
July Best month
☀️ Diurnal When it's spotted

About the Yellow-Fronted Bumble Bee

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 →

Global Distribution

Parks Where Found

# Park Country Daily sighting probability
1 Wrangell-St. Elias National Park 🇺🇸 United States
~40%
2 Kluane National Park 🇨🇦 Canada
~40%
3 Great Bear Rainforest 🇨🇦 Canada
~30%
4 Pacific Rim National Park Reserve 🇨🇦 Canada
~20%
5 Glacier National Park 🇺🇸 United States
~20%
6 Denali National Park 🇺🇸 United States
~10%
7 Olympic National Park 🇺🇸 United States
~10%
8 Grand Teton National Park 🇺🇸 United States
~10%
9 Rocky Mountain National Park 🇺🇸 United States
~10%
10 Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks 🇺🇸 United States
~10%
11 Banff National Park 🇨🇦 Canada
~10%
12 Yellowstone National Park 🇺🇸 United States
~10%

Cities Where Found

# City Country Daily sighting probability
1 Anchorage 🇺🇸 United States
~20%
2 Vancouver 🇨🇦 Canada
~20%
3 Seattle 🇺🇸 United States
~10%
4 Portland 🇺🇸 United States
~10%
5 Edmonton 🇨🇦 Canada
<5%
6 Calgary 🇨🇦 Canada
<5%

Before you go

What are the chances of seeing a Yellow-Fronted Bumble Bee in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve?

Possible

About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-Fronted Bumble Bee sighting in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve on a given day, based on 83 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 5th most-seen of the 107 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 50%, and over a week to about 80%, if each day is a fresh chance.

When is the best time to see a Yellow-Fronted Bumble Bee in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve?

June and July

In those months about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-Fronted Bumble Bee in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve on a given day, against under 5% in September to April, the lowest months. Those are among Pacific Rim National Park Reserve's driest months, with about 60 mm of rain a month against 470 mm in November.

What time of day is best to see a Yellow-Fronted Bumble Bee?

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.

Which relatives of the Yellow-Fronted Bumble Bee live in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve?

Same genus: Bombus

The closest relatives of the Yellow-Fronted Bumble Bee that you can see in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve (genus Bombus, Bumble Bees) are Yellow-Faced Bumble Bee (about 30%), Fuzzy-Horned Bumble Bee (about 30%) and Black-Tailed Bumble Bee (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.

Where does the Yellow-Fronted Bumble Bee sighting chance come from?

GBIF citizen-science records

It is estimated from how often the Yellow-Fronted Bumble Bee is recorded against all the insects logged in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve (83 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.

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