Bombus ternarius
In 3 days ~70% in a week ~90%
Bombus ternarius, commonly known as the orange-belted bumblebee or tricolored bumblebee, is a yellow, orange and black bumblebee. It is a ground-nesting social insect whose colony cycle lasts only one season, common throughout the northeastern United States and much of Canada. The orange-belted bumblebee forages on Rubus, goldenrods, Vaccinium, and milkweeds found throughout the colony's range. Like many other members of the genus, Bombus ternarius exhibits complex social structure with a reproductive queen caste and a multitude of sister workers with labor such as foraging, nursing, and nest maintenance divided among the subordinates.
B. ternarius is a small, fairly slender bumblebee. The queen is 17–19 mm (0.67–0.75 in) long and the breadth of the abdomen is 8.5–9 mm (0.33–0.35 in). The workers are 8–13 mm (0.31–0.51 in), and the drones are 9.5–13 mm (0.37–0.51 in) in length. Both the worker and the drone have abdomens about 4.5–5.5 mm (0.18–0.22 in) in breadth.
The queen and workers have black heads, with a few pale yellow hairs. The anterior and posterior thorax and the first and fourth abdominal segments are yellow, abdominal segments 2 to 3 are orange, and the... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cape Breton Highlands National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 2 | Acadia National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Voyageurs National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Riding Mountain National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 5 | Elk Island National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 6 | Gros Morne National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 7 | Jasper National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Edmonton | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 2 | Calgary | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 3 | Montreal | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 4 | Minneapolis [Saint Paul] | 🇺🇸 United States |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Tricolored Bumble Bee sighting in Riding Mountain National Park on a given day, based on 98 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the most-seen of the 104 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 70%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
July to September
In those months about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Tricolored Bumble Bee in Riding Mountain National Park on a given day, against under 5% in February–March and November–December, the lowest months.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Tricolored 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 7
Of the 7 parks where we can rate Tricolored Bumble Bee sightings, Riding Mountain National Park ranks 4th at about 30%. The best odds are in Cape Breton Highlands National Park (Canada, about 50%), Acadia National Park (United States, about 40%) and Voyageurs National Park (United States, about 40%). All parks ranked.
Same genus: Bombus
The closest relatives of the Tricolored Bumble Bee that you can see in Riding Mountain National Park (genus Bombus, Bumble Bees) are Perplexing Bumble Bee (about 20%), Nevada Bumble Bee (about 20%) and Brown-Belted Bumble Bee (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Tricolored Bumble Bee is recorded against all the insects logged in Riding Mountain National Park (98 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.
