As a fun note, if you pop the photo out and zoom in, you can see that its head looks a bit like a helmet with a narrow neck going into it.
This bee was big/beefy. If any of you know what species it might have been, chime in. If it helps, I’m in SE MI.
My guess would be Eastern Carpenter Bee, but I am not a bee-ologist. I just looked up bees in michigan and compared photos. The eastern carpenter looks the most similar to me.
https://thepetenthusiast.com/bees-in-michigan/
Thanks! I had read that carpenter bees don’t have fuzzy butts but thought they were smaller than this one was. TIL that there is a verity of carpenter bees out there.