Black-tailed Bumble Bee sleeping

Look who was sleeping on a California Delta sunflower.

Yet another bee that I had never seen before.

This is a Black-tailed Bumble Bee, Bombus melanopygus .

It is one of the few bumble bees still often seen in San Francisco.

But this is the first time I've seen one in our garden here in the hills of the East Bay.

As you may have noticed from my posts, I commented a lot about the Yellow-Faced Bumble Bees bombus vosnesenskii in the early summer because they were the first bumble bees to visit our native garden and patio plants this year, in the late spring and early summer.

The Black-tailed Bumble Bee is native to Western North America, from California up to British Columbia.

Here is a side view of the sleeping bee.