Photo#217057 Copyright © 2008 iNaturalist

Xylocopa sonorina - Carpenter Bee in Flight -

Los Gatos, Oka Percolation Ponds, Santa Clara County, California, USA

March 23, 2007

Size: ~20-25 mm



These big chubby guys come out in the spring and fly around in the willows where Coyote Creek flows into the percolation ponds. In Sunnyvale I find them in the Coyote Brush at the WPC ponds. They seem to have a short flight season -- a couple of weeks and they're gone. The females are all black.