Good day, citizen naturalists!
It is now officially Autumn, and this seems to be a good time to pause and take stock of the Backyard Pollinators project.

As it stands now, the project contains 12,257 observations, including a total of 395* species of flower-visiting insects and birds (*not all of which are confirmed to be serving as pollinators.)

Going by iNaturalist's own statistics, the 10 most commonly observed pollinators in our project are:

1. Apis mellifera (Western Honeybee) 1,629 observations
2. Bombus vosnesenskii (Yellow-faced Bumblebee) 812 observations
3. Calypte anna (Anna's hummingbird) 457 observations
4. Bombus melanopygus (Black-tailed Bumblebee) 437 observations
5. Vanessa cardui (Painted Lady) 159 observations
6. Hylephila phyleus (Fiery Skipper) 133 observations
7. Ochlodes sylvanoides (Woodland Skipper) 121 observations
8. Bombus californicus (California Bumblebee) 121 observations
9. Xylocopa tabaniformis (Horsefly-like Carpenter Bee) 120 observations
10. Poanes melane (Umber Skipper) 116 observations

These numbers should be taken with a grain of salt, because they only include pollinators that have been identified to the species level, and many times it is difficult if not impossible to make an accurate ID to the species level. For instance, the project currently includes an additional 791 observations of bumblebees in the subgenus Pyrobombus that could not be confidently identified to the species level. Most of them are probably Bombus vosnesenskii, but some of them might be the rarer but very similar-looking Bombus caliginosus or Bombus vandykei . There are surely other important yet difficult-to-identify pollinating insects that are also being under-counted.

Starting today, I made a change to the observation fields that will pop up when one submits an observation to the project. First, instead of using "Nectar plant" to identify the flower being visited, I am using the field "Nectar/Pollen delivering plant." This revision is long overdue, as flower-visiting insects are not always looking for nectar- pollen is also a rich food source for them, and many pollen-producing plants make little or no nectar. Older observations in the project will still say "Nectar plant" as there are thousands of observations and it will be quite an ordeal to change them all. Please take "Nectar plant" to imply "Nectar or Pollen plant" in this context. Secondly, the pop-up will no longer ask for "Flower shape" and "Flower cluster type" although those remain as optional fields in iNaturalist if you are using the desktop version. I feel the list of four fields was too cumbersome, especially for observers who are using the mobile app, and it was unneccesary to make each observer essentially re-invent the wheel by identifying, for example, the shape of a daisy flower. I've left the "Primary color" field, as that is a noteworthy fact that can vary between different individuals of the same genus or species.

Best,
Alexis Babayan
a.k.a. @alexisamphibian

Going through the observations of Apis melliferas (Western Honeybees) in this project, taking the first day of spring, 03/20/18, as my starting point, the top 20 plant genuses visited by honeybees are:

1. Lavandula (Lavender) 18 observations
2. Salvia (Sages) 18 observations
3. Echium (Viper's-buglosses) 15 observations
4. Eriogonum (Wild buckwheats) 15 observations
5. Trifolium (Clovers) 15 observations
6. Baccharis (Coyote brush and related species) 12 observations
7. Rosa (Roses) 12 observations
8. Rosmarinus (Rosemary) 11 observations
9. Rubus (Brambles) 11 observations
10. Cirsium (Thistles) 10 observations
11. Eschscholzia (California poppies and related species) 9 observations
12. Mentha (Mints) 9 observations
13. Asclepias (Milkweeds) 8 observations
14. Escallonia 7 observations
15. Symphyotrichum (American asters) 7 observations
16. Veronica (Speedwells) 7 observations
17. Callistemon (Bottlebrushes) 6 observations
18. Ceanothus (California lilacs) 6 observations
19. Centaurea (Star Thistles) 6 observations
20. Epilobium (Willowherbs) 6 observations

Flowers bloom at different times- the top 5 flowers in spring (March 20th-June 20th) were:

1. Echium (Viper's-buglosses) 14 observations
2. Trifolium (Clovers) 10 observations
3. Rubus (Brambles) 9 observations
4. Lavandula (Lavender) 8 observations
5. Salvia (Sages) 8 observations

The top 5 flowers in summer (June 21st-September 21st) were:

1. Eriogonum (Wild buckwheats) 11 observations
2. Asclepias (Milkweeds) 8 observations
3. Mentha (Mints) 8 observations
4. Cirsium (Thistles) 7 observations
5. Lavandula (Lavender) 7 observations

It's still very early in autumn, but so far the top autumn flowers are:

1. Baccharis (Coyote brush and related species) 7 observations
2. Callistemon (Bottle brushes) 5 observations
3. Epilobium (Willowherbs) 5 observations
4. Salvia (Sages) 4 observations

Disclaimer- this is obviously still a very small sample, and it is inevitably biased by what is blooming in areas where we happen to have iNaturalist observers with cameras. Nonetheless, it does provide an overview of nectar plants that are attractive to honeybees, and which ones peak in a specific season.

The project still continues!
Best,
Alexis

PS- If you are submitting observations to this project, please fill out the "Nectar plant" field if you know what plant your pollinator is feeding upon. I did not want to make the field mandatory, as sometimes there are really cool photos of pollinators where the observer does not know the name of the flower, and I'd rather err on the side of including those observations and trying to ID the plant after the fact. However, it is much appreciated if you put as specific of an ID as you can- whether it is down to the species or subspecies level, or just the general plant family. Thanks!

An interesting resource, available for free online: https://efotg.sc.egov.usda.gov/references/public/SC/Bee_Basics_North_American_Bee_ID.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3J3ETsPb28oi9627OuuvIqDbtrDguk_MWihrVdEMLcvr4hrV6A4GOlBSs

Bee Basics, a 48-page illustrated e-book put out by the USDA Forest Service and the Pollinator Partnership

I have been going through the 400+ observations of honeybees in the project, to date, to track which flowers they are observed visiting most frequently.
So far, counting observations from 3/20/18 to today, the top 15 plant genuses that Apis mellifera has been observed visiting are:
Eriogonum (Wild Buckwheats)- 13 observations
Trifolium (Clovers)- 13 observations
Lavandula (Lavenders)- 12 observations
Rosa (Roses)- 12 observations
Salvia (Sages)- 12 observations
Echium (Vipers-buglosses)- 11 observations
Circium (Thistles)- 10 observations
Asclepias (Milkweed)- 8 observations
Mentha (Mints)- 8 observations
Rubus (Brambles)- 7 observations
Baccharis- 6 observations
Rosemarinus (Rosemary)- 6 observations
Symphyotrichum (American asters)- 6 observations
Centaurea (Star thistles)- 5 observations
Foeniculum (Fennel)- 5 observations.

The data set is admittedly biased- it is based upon where the observers are (a mixture of observations from wild areas, backyards, and parks) and what type of pollinator/flower interactions are easily observable by humans. (I think flowering trees are under-represented because it is more difficult to observe bees visiting flowers up in the treetops than it is to observe them at eye level or on the ground.) It does not yet include a full year's worth of data. Still, it's a start, and I think it will start to get really interesting once I can compare the data from other pollinators and see how their preferences vary.

Greetings, fellow-naturalists-
I am currently in the process of cleaning up the data set in the project and removing images of insects and hummingbirds that are not actively visiting flowers. (It's quite a project- it can be particularly hard to capture an image of a hummingbird in motion, so I included a number of pictures where they were just sitting and resting, or visiting a feeder- however I intend to remove the observations that do not also record them visiting flowers.)

I have been informed that some of the insects that I have included in the project are not very productive as pollinators- and some are not true pollinators at all, merely nectar-sipping freeloaders! (This applies to a number of the butterflies, but I don't want to take them out, as the project records a useful collection of butterfly-attracting nectar plants.) So take this collection with a grain of salt, and as I learn more I will post profiles of specific pollinator species.

I am in the process of compiling data about which flowers and flower families are most attractive to bees and other pollinators.

Cheers!
Alexis