Variation in foraging strategy has been linked theoretically to the success of some invasive organisms. However, we know little about how invasive animals achieve these behavioral shifts. Africanized honey bees (AHB) provide an ideal system to examine these questions; the highly invasive AHB is closely related to the European honey bee (EHB), but has out-competed it in warmer environments. Evidence suggests AHB’s success is partially related to higher foraging and intake of pollen, the primary nutrient source for brood. Yet, the specific individual-level mechanisms for this difference remain unclear. This study tests the hypothesis that AHB foragers have a lower shifted distribution of response thresholds to pollen foraging stimuli; they are more sensitive to stimuli for pollen foraging and thus begin foraging at higher colony storage levels (lower stimulus for foraging). We observed the foraging behavior of co-fostered individually marked AHB and EHB in response to graded changes in pollen stores. The number of AHB foragers collecting pollen was higher across pollen storage treatments, indicating a higher intrinsic propensity to pollen forage in AHB workers. As we gradually increased the stimulus for pollen foraging, AHB tended to increase their pollen foraging effort earlier (at a lower stimulus level) than EHB, as predicted by the hypothesis that AHB have a lower shifted distribution of response thresholds.