{"id":72945,"date":"2020-08-21T05:20:53","date_gmt":"2020-08-21T11:20:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=72945"},"modified":"2025-05-22T05:43:25","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T10:43:25","slug":"common-sunflower-great-basin-bumble-bee-and-long-horned-bee-at-bear-river-mbr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/08\/21\/common-sunflower-great-basin-bumble-bee-and-long-horned-bee-at-bear-river-mbr\/","title":{"rendered":"Common Sunflower, Great Basin Bumble Bee And Long-horned Bee At Bear River MBR"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CommonCommon Sunflower, Great Basin Bumble Bee and Long-horned Bee \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

When I am not photographing birds I always look around to see what other life I can place in my viewfinder because I know that everything in the natural world is connected.<\/p>\n

When I was at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge<\/span><\/a> three days ago I enjoyed seeing all of the blooming Common Sunflowers and while they are in bloom I can’t resist taking photos of their bright, sunshine colored blooms. Sometimes when I take photographs of the sunflowers I get just the sunflowers themselves, other times I find pollinators on them and when I do I get excited. We need our pollinators and taking photos of them is my way of celebrating their lives.<\/p>\n

When I photographed this Common Sunflower I noticed the Great Basin Bumble Bee right away then I saw the other bee and what appears to be two midges on the upper left quadrant of the flower petals.<\/p>\n

Great Basin Bumble Bees (Bombus centralis<\/em>) are also unofficially called Central Bumble Bees but I think the name Great Basin Bumble Bee is more fitting because I do live and photograph in the Great Basin.<\/p>\n

The other bee is a Long-horned Bee of the tribe Eucerini and that is as far as I was able to narrow down the ID. The male Long-horned Bees have unusually long antennas. The one I photographed is a male. I’ll post a photo or two of it cropped in tighter to iNaturalist to see if I can get a more specific ID.<\/p>\n

I admit to being excited by the Long-horned Bee, I believe this is the first time I’ve photographed a male!<\/p>\n

Bees fascinate me. Nature delights me.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good. Stay safe.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a><\/span> to see more of my flower, shrub and tree photos. Click here<\/a><\/span> to see more of my insect and spider images.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I photographed this Common Sunflower I noticed the Great Basin Bumble Bee right away then I saw the other bee and what appears to be two midges on the upper left quadrant of the flower petals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":145918,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[124,1148,13157,10319,10320,26,5347],"tags":[2464,6513,6627,6098,10321,5940,10326,10327,2649,10322,6028,10323,10325,2639,10324,3896,4307,5063],"class_list":["post-72945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-common-sunflowers","category-great-basin-bumble-bees","category-long-horned-bees","category-utah","category-wildflowers","tag-bee","tag-bees","tag-bloom","tag-blooming","tag-bombus-centralis","tag-bumble-bee","tag-bumble-bees","tag-central-bumble-bee","tag-common-sunflower","tag-great-basin-bumble-bee","tag-helianthus-annuus","tag-long-horned-bee","tag-longhorn-bee","tag-pollinators","tag-tribe-eucerini","tag-wildflower","tag-wildflowers","tag-yellow-wildflowers"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/great-basin-bumble-bee-long-horned-bee-sunflower-mia-mcpherson-5563.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-iYx","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":102522,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/05\/20\/world-bee-day-2022\/","url_meta":{"origin":72945,"position":0},"title":"World Bee Day 2022","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 20, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"May 20th is World Bee Day and I am sharing a photo of two native bees this morning. The Great Basin Bumble Bee and the Long-horned Bee. Native bees are important pollinators.","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Great Basin Bumble Bee and Long-horned Bee on a Common Sunflower, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/great-basin-bumble-bee-long-horned-bee-sunflower-mia-mcpherson-5561.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/great-basin-bumble-bee-long-horned-bee-sunflower-mia-mcpherson-5561.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Moose cow in the sage, Targhee National Forest, Clark County, Idaho","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/moose-cow-mia-mcpherson-2529.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/moose-cow-mia-mcpherson-2529.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/moose-cow-mia-mcpherson-2529.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/moose-cow-mia-mcpherson-2529.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/sunflower-bees-mia-mcpherson-0143.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/sunflower-bees-mia-mcpherson-0143.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/sunflower-bees-mia-mcpherson-0143.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/sunflower-bees-mia-mcpherson-0143.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":105277,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/08\/21\/common-sunflower-photos\/","url_meta":{"origin":72945,"position":3},"title":"Common Sunflower Photos","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 21, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"This morning I wanted to share my recent Common Sunflower photos from Bear River MBR and some of the insects that pollinate these native wildflowers.","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Common Sunflower, Blister Beetle, two flies and a bee, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/common-sunflower-blister-beetle-bee-and-flies-mia-mcpherson-3733.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/common-sunflower-blister-beetle-bee-and-flies-mia-mcpherson-3733.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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