Cecropis cucullata
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~50%
The greater striped swallow (Cecropis cucullata) is a large swallow that is native to Africa south of the equator. The greater striped swallow was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1780 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux from a specimen collected in the Cape of Good Hope district of South Africa. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Hirundo cucullata in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées. The greater striped swallow is now one of nine species that are placed in the genus Cecropis that was introduced by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie in 1826. The species is monotypic and no subspecies are recognised. The name of the genus is from the Ancient Greek Kekropis "Athenian woman". The specific epithet cucullata is from the Late Latin cucullatus meaning "hooded". Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | De Hoop Nature Reserve | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 2 | Golden Gate Highlands National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 3 | Garden Route National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 4 | Addo Elephant National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 5 | Pilanesberg National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 6 | Etosha National Park | 🇳🇦 Namibia | |
| 7 | Table Mountain National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 8 | Waterberg Plateau Park | 🇳🇦 Namibia | |
| 9 | Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 10 | uMkhuze Game Reserve | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 11 | Namib-Naukluft National Park | 🇳🇦 Namibia | |
| 12 | West Coast National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 13 | Kruger National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 14 | Chobe National Park | 🇧🇼 Botswana | |
| 15 | iSimangaliso Wetland Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 16 | Moremi Game Reserve | 🇧🇼 Botswana |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Johannesburg | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 2 | Pretoria | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 3 | Cape Town | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 4 | Harare | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Greater Striped-Swallow sighting in Cape Town on a given day, based on 344 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 58th most-seen of the 196 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
October and December
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Greater Striped-Swallow in Cape Town on a given day, against under 5% in May to August, the lowest months. Those are among Cape Town's driest months, with about 35 mm of rain a month against 140 mm in June.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Greater Striped-Swallow sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
3rd of 4
Of the 4 cities where we can rate Greater Striped-Swallow sightings, Cape Town ranks 3rd at about 10%. The best odds are in Johannesburg (South Africa, about 20%) and Pretoria (South Africa, about 10%).
Same family: Hirundinidae
The closest relatives of the Greater Striped-Swallow that you can see in Cape Town (family Hirundinidae, Swallows and Martins) are White-throated Swallow (about 20%), Barn Swallow (about 10%) and Rock Martin (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Greater Striped-Swallow is recorded against all the birds logged in Cape Town (344 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.
