Cecropis senegalensis
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The mosque swallow (Cecropis senegalensis) is a large species of swallow. It is a resident breeder in much of sub-Saharan Africa, although most common in the west. It does not migrate but follows the rains to some extent.
In 1760, the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the mosque swallow in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected in Senegal. He used the French name L'hirondelle du Sénégal and the Latin Hirundo Senegalensis. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. In 1766, when Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the mosque swallow. Linnaeus included a brief description and used Brisson's Latin name for his binomial name Hirundo senegalensis.
Formerly placed in the genus Hirundo the mosque swallow and its relatives have been shown by molecular studies to be a separate clade and are now placed in the genus Cecropis, which was introduced by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie in 1826.
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With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Mosque Swallow sighting in Liwonde National Park on a given day, based on 16 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 185th most-seen of the 267 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
November
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Mosque Swallow in Liwonde National Park on a given day, against under 5% in October and December–August, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Mosque Swallow sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
18th of 31
Of the 31 parks where we can rate Mosque Swallow sightings, Liwonde National Park ranks 18th at about 10%. The best odds are in Gonarezhou National Park (Zimbabwe, about 30%), Aberdare National Park (Kenya, about 20%) and Mana Pools National Park (Zimbabwe, about 20%).
Same family: Hirundinidae
The closest relatives of the Mosque Swallow that you can see in Liwonde National Park (family Hirundinidae, Swallows and Martins) are Wire-tailed Swallow (about 30%) and Barn Swallow (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Mosque Swallow is recorded against all the birds logged in Liwonde National Park (16 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.
