Have you ever noticed a bee that looked a little…different? Maybe it was a bit fuzzier than a typical honey bee, or maybe it was obsidian black, bright orange, startlingly large, or as tiny as a gnat. Chances are, if you’ve seen a bee meeting any of these descriptions, you observed one of Earth’s 20,000 species of native bees (with around 1,600 of those species living in California).  Join me and National Geographic Explorer, TEDx speaker, and community scientist Krystle Hickman as we head outside to find native bees and discuss the widely varied social lives of bees, bee architecture, whether or not honeybees are an invasive species, buzz pollination, where to find native bees near you, the potential of native bees in agriculture, and the importance of these beings not just to humans, but to entire ecosystems. Follow Krystle @beesip on Instagram Krystle's website Native Bees of the Western United States (cards) ♥️ ⁠Valentines (including a native bee by Krystle)⁠ ♥️ My website is goldenstatenaturalist.com Find me on Instagram @goldenstatenaturalist ⁠Article⁠ on honey bee pollination outcomes compared with native bees. The song is called "i dunno" by grapes, and the Creative Commons license can be found here.