You probably think you know what a bee looks like. Most people picture a fuzzy, yellow-and-black insect hovering over a lavender bush, maybe dragging a heavy load of pollen on its legs. But if you actually start looking at photos of different types of bees, you’ll realize we’ve been lied to by cartoons. Some are metallic green. Others are pitch black and as big as a thumb. There are even bees that look more like shiny blue jewels than garden pests.
It's wild.
The reality is that there are over 20,000 species of bees globally. In North America alone, you're looking at about 4,000 species. Most of them don't live in hives. Most of them don't have queens. Most of them won't even sting you unless you literally squish them against your skin. If you’re trying to identify what’s buzzing around your porch, you need to look past the "bumblebee" stereotype and check out the weird, solitary world of the specialists.
Why your photos of different types of bees all look like flies
Seriously, it happens to the best of us. You see something hovering, you snap a pic, and it turns out to be a Hoverfly (Syrphid fly). These guys are the ultimate imposters. They’ve evolved to mimic bee patterns to scare off predators, but they only have two wings, whereas bees have four.
Look at the eyes.
Fly eyes are massive goggles that almost meet at the top of the head. Bee eyes are more like narrow ovals on the sides. If your photo shows an insect "hovering" perfectly still in mid-air like a tiny drone before darting away, it's almost certainly a fly. Bees are more erratic; they’ve got places to be and pollen to grab.
Then there’s the Carpenter bee. People constantly confuse them with Bumblebees because they’re both big and round. But here’s the trick: look at the butt. If the abdomen is "shiny and tiny" (or at least hairless and glossy), it’s a Carpenter bee. If it’s fuzzy all the way down, you’ve got a Bumblebee. Carpenter bees are the ones drilling perfectly circular holes into your cedar deck. They aren’t eating the wood—they don't have the stomach for it—they’re just master carpenters building high-end condos for their larvae.
📖 Related: Kiko Japanese Restaurant Plantation: Why This Local Spot Still Wins the Sushi Game
The stunning world of Mason and Leafcutter bees
Most people have never heard of a Mason bee, which is a shame because they are arguably the hardest workers in the garden. They don't make honey. They don't live in a social hierarchy. They just wake up, find a hole in some wood or masonry, and start pollinating like their lives depend on it—because they do.
When you see photos of different types of bees in the Megachilidae family, you’ll notice they carry pollen on their bellies rather than their legs. It’s called a "scopa." It looks like a bright yellow or orange hairy rug on the underside of their abdomen.
Leafcutters are in this group too. If you see perfectly circular chunks missing from your rose leaves, don't reach for the pesticide. You’ve been visited by a Leafcutter bee. They use those leaf circles to line their nests, creating little cigar-shaped nurseries for their babies. It’s actually pretty incredible engineering for an insect with a brain the size of a sesame seed.
Identifying the metallic "Jewel" bees
If you’ve ever caught a flash of bright, iridescent green in your garden, you might have thought you saw a Cuckoo wasp or some kind of weird beetle. Nope. You likely saw a Sweat bee (Halictidae).
They’re small.
They’re fast.
And they’re incredibly beautiful.
The Agapostemon genus is the one that really stops people in their tracks. Some species have a bright green thorax and a striped black-and-yellow abdomen. Others are solid metallic emerald from head to tail. They’re called "sweat bees" because some species are actually attracted to the salt in human perspiration. They’ll land on your arm to get a quick lick of salt. It feels like a tiny tickle. Honestly, it’s kind of a compliment if one chooses you as its salt lick for the day.
👉 See also: Green Emerald Day Massage: Why Your Body Actually Needs This Specific Therapy
The ground-dwellers nobody notices
We spend so much time looking at flowers that we forget to look at the dirt. Roughly 70% of bee species live underground. If you see a tiny mound of dirt with a hole in the middle on your lawn, don’t assume it’s ants. It might be a Mining bee (Andrena).
These are some of the first bees to emerge in the spring. They’re often duller in color—browns, blacks, and greys—which helps them blend into the soil. They are solitary, but they like to "neighbor." You might find fifty holes in one patch of dry dirt, each belonging to a different female who is minding her own business. They’re the introverts of the bee world. They don't want a crowd; they just want a quiet tunnel to lay an egg on a ball of pollen.
Squash bees: The ultimate specialists
Nature loves a specialist. The Squash bee (Peponapis pruinosa) is a perfect example. These bees have evolved to specifically pollinate cucurbits—pumpkins, squash, and zucchini.
If you take photos of different types of bees in a pumpkin patch at 6:00 AM, you’ll see them everywhere. By noon, they’ve usually finished their day's work. In fact, male squash bees will often fall asleep inside the closed pumpkin blossoms once the sun gets high. If you ever find a closed flower and give it a gentle squeeze, you might hear a very annoyed "bzzzt" from a napping male who just wants to sleep off his pollen hangover.
How to take better bee photos for identification
You don't need a $3,000 macro lens to get a good shot for ID purposes, though it helps. Most modern smartphones have a decent macro mode. The key is to get three specific angles if you want a positive ID from an expert on a site like iNaturalist or BugGuide.
- The Profile: This shows the leg hairs and the side of the thorax.
- The Face: This is crucial for identifying different species of Leafcutter or Mason bees, as their jaw shapes (mandibles) vary.
- The "Top Down" (Dorsal) View: This helps identify the wing venation and the segments of the abdomen.
Bees move fast.
The trick is to find a flower they love—like Purple Coneflower or Bee Balm—and just wait. Don't chase them. Let them get comfortable. Once they start "drinking," they enter a sort of nectar trance, and you can get surprisingly close without bothering them.
✨ Don't miss: The Recipe Marble Pound Cake Secrets Professional Bakers Don't Usually Share
The misconception of the "Dying Bee"
You’ll often see photos of different types of bees crawling on the sidewalk, looking sluggish. People's first instinct is to "save" them with sugar water. While a tired bee sometimes just needs a boost, it’s important to remember that most bees have a very short lifespan.
A worker honeybee lives about six weeks in the summer. A male bee's only job is to mate; once that's done (or once the season ends), they're essentially expendable. Sometimes, what you're seeing isn't a bee in distress, but a bee at the end of its natural life cycle. It's sad, but it's part of the ecosystem. Instead of feeding them sugar water—which can actually be harmful if the concentration is wrong—the best thing you can do is provide a habitat with diverse, native flowers that bloom from early spring to late fall.
What about the "Murder Hornet"?
Let's clear this up. The Northern Giant Hornet (formerly known by the media-hyped name "Murder Hornet") is not a bee. It's a vespis. While they are massive and intimidating, they are not lurking in every backyard in America. Most people who think they’ve photographed one have actually snapped a picture of a European Hornet or a Cicada Killer wasp. Both are big, but neither is the "bee-killing" giant from the headlines. If your photo shows a very large, orange-ish wasp, check the markings on the abdomen. Cicada killers have jagged, "mountain-like" yellow patterns, whereas the Giant Hornet has more distinct, solid bands.
Actionable steps for your backyard "Safari"
If you want to start documenting the diversity of bees in your own area, start with these steps:
- Plant for the specialists: If you only plant sunflowers, you’ll only see certain bees. Add some Tubular flowers (like Foxglove) for long-tongued bees and flat, landing-pad flowers (like Zinnias) for the smaller guys.
- Leave the "mess": Stop cleaning up your garden so thoroughly. Dead hollow stems and patches of bare dirt are vital nesting sites. If you cut everything back to the ground in October, you’re literally throwing away next year's bees.
- Use the right tech: Download the iNaturalist app. When you upload your photos of different types of bees, the AI gives you a starting point, but then real humans—actual entomologists—will eventually look at your photo and confirm the species. It turns your hobby into actual scientific data.
- Watch the "pollen pants": Start noticing the color of the pollen. Some bees carry white pollen, others bright orange or deep red. It’s a great way to track which bees are visiting which plants in your yard.
Bees are much more than just honey producers. They are the invisible glue holding the ecosystem together, one tiny, vibrating vibration at a time. The more you look at them through a lens, the more you realize that the "scary stinging bug" is actually a complex, beautiful, and mostly peaceful neighbor. Take the photo. Zoom in. You’ll be surprised at what’s actually living in your weeds.