Help monitor native bees in your area
Explore opportunities to get involved with our community science partners.
No experience necessary! Browse our partners below.
Some national projects you can contribute data to:
Big Bee Bonanza
Transcribe labels from bee specimens! With your help, Big-Bee will overcome data limitations for understanding bee biodiversity and decline. Specimen labels provide information about when and where bees occur and the measurements give bee researchers an indication of bee body size. By combining this information with other bee trait data, researchers can discover how bees are responding to anthropogenic change and other interesting life history stories.
Image credit: Brianne Du Clos
The Great Sunflower Project
The Great Sunflower Project is a national community science project with multiple projects involving plants and pollinators. You can plant sunflowers and observe their pollinators or you can head to your favorite place to watch bees and conduct a stationary count. Submit your data online, and the Great Sunflower Project will collect and analyze your contribution.
Bumble Bee Watch
Bumble Bee Watch is a collaborative effort to track and conserve North America's bumble bees. By taking photos of bumble bees and submitting them online, you can learn about bumble bee identification and ecology and contribute valuable information on where bumble bees, including rare species, occur.
Image credit: © Clay Bolt / claybolt.com
The Great American Bee Count
The National Native Bee Monitoring RCN is hosting The Great American Bee Count on iNaturalist. Our Bee Count is an umbrella project that links to existing efforts to catalog native bees on iNaturalist, including national projects and state-based projects in Ohio, Oregon, Minnesota, New Mexico, Utah, Vermont, and West Virginia. If you don't see a project in your area, you can begin contributing photos of bees to iNaturalist on your own that can be used to determine where native bees occur.
Image credit: © Clay Bolt / claybolt.com
Browse native bee monitoring community science opportunities by state
If you would like your project added to this list, please contact us!
Arizona
California
Colorado
Georgia
The Great Georgia Pollinator Census
Idaho, Oregon, and Washington
Pacific Northwest Bumble Bee Atlas
Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, and Ohio
Kansas, North Dakota, and South Dakota
Massachusetts and other New England states
Minnesota
Missouri
Shutterbee (St. Louis region)
Nebraska
New York
Empire State Native Pollinator Survey (project completed; full project report available at link)
North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee
Ohio
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania Bee Monitoring Program
Vermont
Wisconsin
Short Courses for Community Scientists
The Ohio State University Bee Lab presented two webinar series on native bees in 2021 and 2022:
The Bee Short Course for Community Scientists
The Bumble Bee Short Course for Community Scientists
Image credit: © Clay Bolt / claybolt.com
Pollinator Ambassador Outreach Toolkit
University of Minnesota Extension
The Pollinator Ambassador Outreach Toolkit was created by pollinator experts at the University of Minnesota Bee Lab and Monarch Joint Venture. The versatile, portable, and educational toolkit provides science-based pollinator education through games and interactive features. The kits include instructions for education and outreach leaders.
