Riparia paludicola
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The brown-throated martin, brown-throated sand martin or plain martin (Riparia paludicola) is a small passerine bird in the swallow family, Hirundinidae, that is widely distributed across Africa. It was formerly regarded as conspecific with the grey-throated martin (Riparia chinensis) and the Madagascar martin (Riparia cowani).
The brown-throated martin was formally described in 1817 by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot. He placed it in the genus Hirundo and coined the binomial name Hirundo paludicola. The specific epithet paludicola is Latin meaning "marsh-dweller" (from palus, paludis meaning "swamp" and -cola meaning "dweller". Vieillot based his account on "L'hirondelle à front roux" from South Africa that had been described and illustrated in 1806 by François Levaillant. The brown-throated martin is now one of six martins placed in the genus Riparia that was introduced in 1817 by the German naturalist Johann Reinhold Forster. It was formerly considered to be conspecific with the grey-throated martin (Riparia chinensis) and the Madagascar martin (Riparia cowani).
Six subspecies are recognised. They differ in size and plumage tones of the upperparts... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nairobi | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 2 | Antananarivo | 🇲🇬 Madagascar | |
| 3 | Cape Town | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 4 | Johannesburg | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 5 | Addis Ababa | 🇪🇹 Ethiopia | |
| 6 | Durban | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 7 | Marrakesh | 🇲🇦 Morocco | |
| 8 | Pretoria | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 9 | Kampala | 🇺🇬 Uganda |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Plain Martin sighting in Addis Ababa on a given day, based on 17 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 81st most-seen of the 109 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January, May and October
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Plain Martin in Addis Ababa on a given day, against under 5% in February–April, June–September and November–December, the lowest months. Those are among Addis Ababa's driest months, with about 45 mm of rain a month against 250 mm in August.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Plain Martin sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
5th of 9
Of the 9 cities where we can rate Plain Martin sightings, Addis Ababa ranks 5th at under 5%. The best odds are in Nairobi (Kenya, about 10%), Antananarivo (Madagascar, about 10%) and Cape Town (South Africa, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Plain Martin is recorded against all the birds logged in Addis Ababa (17 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
