A honey bee collects pollen from a white flower.

15 breathtaking photos of bees in their habitat

Get an up-close look at stunning pollinators and the National Geographic Explorers whose work puts a spotlight on them.

Photograph by Lucas Ninno
Published April 17, 2026

The socially intelligent pollinators are a keystone species crucial to the health of ecosystems and food security across the world.

Learn more about bees in National Geographic’s two-part documentary series “Secrets of the Bees.”

Cluster of bees at the round entrance of their hive.
Jataí bees at the entrance of their straw-shaped hive. This family of stingless bees is one of the most common in the Cerrado, the Brazilian savanna. 
Photograph by Lucas Ninno
A green bee rests on a flower.
A solitary bee rests on a flower in a riparian forest area of the Cerrado in Chapada dos Guimarães. Most stingless bees in the Cerrado are not social, meaning they live and build their nests alone, rather than in hives.
Photograph by Lucas Ninno
Hands over a bee honeycomb
Entomologist and National Geographic Explorer Samuel Ramsey’s research on the decline of honey bees has taken him around the globe to better understand how pollinator pandemics start — and how they can be stopped. Ramsey evaluates the health of broods by opening capped brood cells to assess disease pressure. 
A square-headed mason bee.
A bee in close view, resting on a grey rock.
Close-up of a mason bee (left) and an Edward's digger bee (right).
Photograph by Krystle Hickman (Top) (Left) and Photograph by Krystle Hickman (Bottom) (Right)
A woman and man examine a bee hive as bees fly around them.
National Geographic Explorer, biochemist and molecular biologist, Rosa Vásquez Espinoza, studies bee hives with local farmer Heriberto Vela, in a remote Peruvian community of the Amazon Basin.
Photograph by Ana Elisa Sotelo
Two bees near a yellow and red flower with pollen.
Two different species of stingless bees compete for pollen from a flower in Chapada dos Guimarães National Park.
Photograph by Lucas Ninno
A bee flies near purple buds on a bush.
A male koebelei desert miner bee on an Indigo Bush.
Photograph by Krystle Hickman
Two stingless bees building a nest
Stingless bees work on building their nests. The extraction and commercialization of honey from stingless bees in the Cerrado still remains artisanal, catering only to supply the demand of luxury restaurants and confectioneries.
Photograph by Lucas Ninno
A person in a beekeeping suit examines a bee hive
A person harvests honey from a backyard apiary. Flowering seasons in the Damaran Baru forest and coffee plantations influence the honey’s flavor.
Photograph by Yoppy Pieter
A close-up view of a sunflower turret bee sitting on a sunflower
A sunflower turret bee on a sunflower.
Photograph by Krystle Hickman
Woman in the background holds out a bumblebee incased in a clear vial
National Geographic Explorer Felicity Muth holds a Bombus flavifrons species of bumblebee in a vial while conducting fieldwork to decode bee intelligence. This research is part of the Wildlife Intelligence Project, inspired by Jane Goodall and the Templeton Prize, and supported by the National Geographic Society and the Templeton World Charity Foundation.
Photograph by Mark Thiessen
A bee perched on a rock
Close-up of a stingless bee in the Cerrado of the Peruaçu Environmental Protection Area in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais.
Photograph by Lucas Ninno
A bee resting on a yellow flower
A male Nevada nomia bee sleeping on a coastal goldenbush at San Jacinto Wildlife Area in Lakeview, California.
Photograph by Krystle Hickman