A great website for identifying bumble bees. Who knew?

 

Black-tailed bumble bee - Bombus melanopygus - On white clover in Leduc, Alberta

How do you know a bumble bee if you see one?  Most will tell you it is a large, furry black and yellow bee.  Sometimes there is orange or an orange-red colour at the back.  And most people would be happy enough to leave it at that.  If you want a better guide to identification, where do you go?  I found the perfect place.

Bumble Bee Watch is a website dedicated to the the preservation of bumble bees in North America (Canada and US).  They have a tremendous field guide that allows you to put in specific data regarding the location and colouration of a bumble bee and provides results relative to the data entered.  Click here just to have a quick look at it - and maybe play a little.  I have a screen shot below.

Three of 52 different species of bumble bee found at the Bumble Bee Watch field guide site.

It is amazing the variation in patterns you find in bumble bees.  I have many photos of bumble bees, but haven't taken the time to identify them.  Looking at some, it is easy to spot differences if you take a moment.  See below.  A bumble bee isn't just a bumble bee after all.

Four different species of bumble bee I have photographed over the years.

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com





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