I found a bee sleeping with its tongue out! The image above is the cropped-in image. Below I’ve created a carousel with the full image, the cropped image, and another photograph from a different angle. For the fun of it, I’ll also add an image I took a couple days ago of a cute bee asleep on our screen door (also taken early in the morning).

I photographed this bee early this morning while it was still pretty cool outside. Its tongue was out the whole time. Later I watched it stir and then fly away from this catmint flower.

I searched online to see if it’s common for bees to sleep with their tongues out. I couldn’t find anything. My coworker asked her entomologist friend too. That friend’s response: “Awwww! I am not sure if this is normal or not, but a bee sticking its tongue out in its sleep is about the cutest thing I can think of."

Location: Silverton, Oregon

Exposure: 1/500 second, f/4, ISO 720 [Focus stack of 2 images]

Focal Length: 105 mm

Gear:

• Camera: Nikon D850

• Lens: Sigma 105mm f2.8 Macro