A pollinator is any animal that visits flowering plants and moves pollen from flower to flower, which helps plants reproduce, making fruits and seeds. In North America, pollinators include bees, butterflies, moths, flower flies, beetles, wasps, hummingbirds, and in some parts of the southwestern U.S. and Mexico, nectar-feeding bats. Some animals, like butterflies, move pollen while they are feeding on plant nectar.

Bees are the most efficient pollinators because they also collect pollen as a protein source for their offspring, so they move the pollen around as they visit flowering plants. There are approximately 20,000 bee species in the world, 3,600 in the United States and over 400 in Texas.