Riparia cincta
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10%
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 Hwange National Park on a given day, based on 7 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 274th most-seen of the 308 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Banded Martin in Hwange National Park on a given day, against under 5% in February to December, the lowest months. That is one of Hwange National Park's wettest months, with about 150 mm of rain against almost none in July.
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.
20th of 27
Of the 27 parks where we can rate Banded Martin sightings, Hwange National Park ranks 20th 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%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Banded Martin is recorded against all the birds logged in Hwange National Park (7 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.
