Riparia cincta
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The banded martin or banded sand martin (Neophedina cincta) is a small passerine bird in the swallow family Hirundinidae that is endemic to Africa. It is the only species placed in the genus Neophedina. The banded martin was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1780 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux from a specimen collected from the Cape of Good Hope. 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 cincta in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées.
The banded martin was formerly placed in the genus Riparia. A genetic study found that it belonged to a different clade to other members of the genus, and it was moved to the genus Neophedina that had been introduced in 1922 by the South African zoologist Austin Roberts. The specific epithet cincta is from Latin cinctus meaning "banded".
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South Africa · 2023
© magdastlucia · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Banded Martin sighting in Etosha National Park on a given day, based on 64 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 154th most-seen of the 260 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.
November to April
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Banded Martin in Etosha National Park on a given day, against under 5% in May to October, the lowest months. Those are among Etosha National Park's wettest months, with about 45 mm of rain a month against almost none in June.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Banded 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.
14th of 27
Of the 27 parks where we can rate Banded Martin sightings, Etosha National Park ranks 14th at under 5%. The best odds are in Nairobi National Park (Kenya, about 20%), West Coast National Park (South Africa, about 10%) and Golden Gate Highlands National Park (South Africa, about 10%).
Same family: Hirundinidae
The closest relatives of the Banded Martin that you can see in Etosha National Park (family Hirundinidae, Swallows and Martins) are Rock Martin (about 30%), Rufous-chested Swallow (about 20%) and Barn Swallow (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Banded Martin is recorded against all the birds logged in Etosha National Park (64 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.
