Hirundo lucida
Silhouette: Matt Wilkins · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~60% in a week ~90%
The red-chested swallow (Hirundo lucida) is a small non-migratory passerine bird found in West Africa, the Congo Basin and Ethiopia. It has a long, deeply forked tail and curved, pointed wings. It was formerly considered a subspecies of the closely resembling barn swallow. However, the adult red-chested swallow differs in being slightly smaller than its migratory relative, in addition to having a narrower blue breast band and shorter tail streamers. Juveniles are more comparable to barn swallow chicks.
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Niokolo-Koba National Park | 🇸🇳 Senegal | |
| 2 | Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary | 🇸🇳 Senegal | |
| 3 | Mole National Park | 🇬🇭 Ghana |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Freetown | 🇸🇱 Sierra Leone | |
| 2 | Serrekunda | 🇬🇲 Gambia | |
| 3 | Dakar | 🇸🇳 Senegal | |
| 4 | Accra | 🇬🇭 Ghana |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Red-chested Swallow sighting in Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary on a given day, based on 48 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 95th most-seen of the 173 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 60%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January
In that month about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Red-chested Swallow in Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary on a given day, against about 10% in April and November, the lowest months. That is one of Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary's driest months, with almost no rain against 55 mm in August. May to October have too few records to rate.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Red-chested Swallow sightings with a recorded time, and about 7 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Among the best
Of the 3 parks where we can rate Red-chested Swallow sightings, Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary ranks 2nd at about 30%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Niokolo-Koba National Park (Senegal, about 30%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Red-chested Swallow is recorded against all the birds logged in Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary (48 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
