Jump to help with:
Bumble Bee Data
Habitat Data
Volunteer Data
Mobile App
Mailing in Datasheets

Submit Your Bumble Bee Data

We will be collecting all bumble bee data using the citizen science website Bumble Bee Watch. You can either submit data using our Android or Apple apps, or online using the web app. See here for a tutorial on submitting bumble bee data using mobile apps. There is also a video on the resources page showing you how to do this. Don't for get to Submit your Survey Data.
  • Curate your photos and gather your data.
    1. Make sure you know which photos belong to which individual bee. All of this information should be on your datasheet, so have that nearby.
    2. Each observation can only include 3 photos – pick your best three (it is fine if you have fewer than 3). If you do have fewer than 3, including a photo of the plant on which it was seen visiting is very helpful!
    3. Make sure you know at which site each bee was caught (exact location within a site is not important, just the site).
  • Login to Bumble Bee Watch
  • Choose Record a Sighting -> Bumble Bee Sighting
  • Upload photos and enter your location information (see Figure below for more details). ​
  • Identify the bumble bee in your photo (see figure below for more instructions):
  • You’ll need to repeat this procedure for each observation/individual bee that you captured. When you go to submit your second observation, you will enter the same site name in the “Your locations” box, and the lat/long and date and pin will automatically be entered, speeding up the process. We realize this may be time consuming, but each observation needs to be photo documented to ensure a high degree of fidelity in the dataset.
  • After you have submitted all of your bumble bee data - SUBMIT YOUR SURVEY DATA HERE, and please fill your our Volunteer Survey.

Submit your habitat data

It is best that you submit your habitat data online. We’ve provided a place for you to do this directly on this website, or in Bumble Bee Watch .
Starting on the next page of the web form, each field corresponds to a field on your Rapid Habitat Assessment Form datasheet (Note: not all fields are shown here):
Picture
Click for more detail.
Picture
Click for more detail.
Enter the plant information for each species. The form is set up to take a maximum of 16 species per site. If you have more than that, you may scan your datasheets (or take a clear picture of them) and email them to bumblebees@xerces.org and we will enter the remaining plant data. If you use Flickr you can share your photos with us there. If you do not use Flickr (or would prefer not to), please just hold onto your vegetation and habitat photos for now. We may come to you later looking for verification and/or documentation.
  • ​After you have entered your plant data, enter any notes that you took on the last page and submit – Thank You! You should get a confirmation page and a confirmation email with all of the data you submitted. If you did not, your data was not submitted and please try again.
  • Please make sure to also fill out the Volunteer Data Form.

Submit Your Volunteer Data

  • When you have finished entering all of your bumble bee observations, please fill out the volunteer survey.
  • You can also find this directly on the Bumble Bee Watch page. From the home page, select Projects > PNW Bumble Bee Atlas > Volunteer Data
Then proceed to fill out the form following the instructions on each page.

Using the Mobile App to Submit Bumble Bee Data

First be sure to select your region:
Next choose the species - you can use the filters if it is helpful:
Click the plus sign to add a sighting
Add in all of the necessary information (including photos)
  1. Touch here to select a location on the map
  2. Touch here to select the accuracy of the map pin (values are in meters)
  3. Change the date and time
  4. Add any observation notes
  5. Add the floral host
  6. Add up to 3 photos of the bumble bee - if you have fewer than 3 photos of the bumble bee, include a photo of the floral host.
  7. Touch to submit

Mailing in Datasheets

We greatly prefer that you try to submit your data online. Similar research projects have found that this ultimately increases accuracy, and improves the quality of the information collected. We also understand that sometimes this is not possible, or there is something about your data that is unique and may not fit into the web-based forms that we've established. If you have questions about data entry, you may send them to bumblebees@xerces.org. If help just will not solve the problem, you may send in your datasheets in one of two ways.

​You may scan them - or take a clear digital photo of them - and send them via email as an attachment to: bumblebees@xerces.org. 

You may also send in paper copies of your data sheets. If you do this, please include your phone number and/or email address so that we can contact you with any questions about the information on your datasheets. Please make a copy of the datasheets in case they are lost in the mail. You can direct all postal mail to:

The Xerces Society
C/O PNW Bumble Bee Atlas
628 NE Broadway, Suite 200
Portland, OR 97232

Project Partners

Supported with funding from:
About the Pacific Northwest Bumble Bee Atlas
The PNW Bumble Bee Atlas is a collaborative effort between the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation to track and conserve the bumble bees of Oregon, Washington and Idaho.
All photography by The Xerces Society, unless otherwise noted.