Riparia cincta
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5%
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 Kruger National Park on a given day, based on 21 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 391st most-seen of the 464 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Banded Martin in Kruger National Park on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
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.
27th of 27
Of the 27 parks where we can rate Banded Martin sightings, Kruger National Park ranks 27th 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 Kruger National Park (21 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.
