Thanks to their size and charisma, Bumble Bees are many people’s “first loves” in the bee world. How can we learn to recognize them in their diversity without getting overwhelmed?

Peter Abrahamsen is an instructor with the Washington Bee Atlas and the Mountaineers Naturalists. He got his start with the bees in his yard, graduating to Xerces' Bumble Bee Atlas before identifying nearly twenty thousand bumble bees from the Pacific Northwest on iNaturalist. The region has always been his home, and he considers getting to know these bees the neighborly thing to do.