Orthetrum brachiale
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
Orthetrum brachiale, the tough skimmer or strong skimmer, is a species of dragonfly in the family Libellulidae. It is found in Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Réunion, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, possibly Burundi, and possibly São Tomé and Príncipe. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, dry savanna, moist savanna, subtropical or tropical dry shrubland, subtropical or tropical moist shrubland, shrub-dominated wetlands, swamps, intermittent freshwater lakes, freshwater marshes, and intermittent freshwater marshes. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kruger National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lusaka | 🇿🇲 Zambia |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Banded Skimmer sighting in Kruger National Park on a given day, based on 6 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 656th most-seen of the 748 insects 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.
May
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Banded Skimmer in Kruger National Park on a given day, against under 5% in June to April, the lowest months. That is one of Kruger National Park's driest months, with about 10 mm of rain against 110 mm in February.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Banded Skimmer sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Kruger National Park, in our data
Kruger National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Banded Skimmer sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same genus: Orthetrum
The closest relatives of the Banded Skimmer that you can see in Kruger National Park (genus Orthetrum) are Epaulet Skimmer (about 20%), Bold Skimmer (about 10%) and Julia Skimmer (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Banded Skimmer is recorded against all the insects logged in Kruger National Park (6 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.
