Riparia paludicola
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
The brown-throated martin, brown-throated sand martin or plain martin (Riparia paludicola) is a small passerine bird in the swallow family, Hirundinidae, that is widely distributed across Africa. It was formerly regarded as conspecific with the grey-throated martin (Riparia chinensis) and the Madagascar martin (Riparia cowani).
The brown-throated martin was formally described in 1817 by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot. He placed it in the genus Hirundo and coined the binomial name Hirundo paludicola. The specific epithet paludicola is Latin meaning "marsh-dweller" (from palus, paludis meaning "swamp" and -cola meaning "dweller". Vieillot based his account on "L'hirondelle à front roux" from South Africa that had been described and illustrated in 1806 by François Levaillant. The brown-throated martin is now one of six martins placed in the genus Riparia that was introduced in 1817 by the German naturalist Johann Reinhold Forster. It was formerly considered to be conspecific with the grey-throated martin (Riparia chinensis) and the Madagascar martin (Riparia cowani).
Six subspecies are recognised. They differ in size and plumage tones of the upperparts... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nairobi | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 2 | Antananarivo | 🇲🇬 Madagascar | |
| 3 | Cape Town | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 4 | Johannesburg | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 5 | Addis Ababa | 🇪🇹 Ethiopia | |
| 6 | Durban | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 7 | Marrakesh | 🇲🇦 Morocco | |
| 8 | Pretoria | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 9 | Kampala | 🇺🇬 Uganda |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Plain Martin sighting in Lower Zambezi National Park on a given day, based on 52 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 127th most-seen of the 241 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
August
In that month about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Plain Martin in Lower Zambezi National Park on a given day, against under 5% in October, the lowest month. That is one of Lower Zambezi National Park's driest months, with almost no rain against 290 mm in January. February and March have too few records to rate.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Plain 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.
10th of 37
Of the 37 parks where we can rate Plain Martin sightings, Lower Zambezi National Park ranks 10th at about 10%. The best odds are in Arusha National Park (Tanzania, about 40%), Nairobi National Park (Kenya, about 30%) and Aberdare National Park (Kenya, about 30%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Hirundinidae
The closest relatives of the Plain Martin that you can see in Lower Zambezi National Park (family Hirundinidae, Swallows and Martins) are Wire-tailed Swallow (about 40%), Gray-rumped Swallow (about 10%) and Mosque Swallow (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Plain Martin is recorded against all the birds logged in Lower Zambezi National Park (52 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.
