Psalidoprocne pristoptera
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10%
The black saw-wing (Psalidoprocne pristoptera), also known as the blue saw-wing or black rough-winged swallow, is a small passerine bird in the swallow family. The black rough-winged swallow breeds in open wooded habitats, and has a preference for wetter areas, although some races occur in mountain grassland habitat. It breeds across Africa from eastern Nigeria and Ethiopia south to Angola, northern Zimbabwe and northern Mozambique. The subspecies P. p. holomelaena breeds down south-eastern Africa from southern Mozambique to the Cape in South Africa.
This species is mainly resident, apart from seasonal local or altitudinal movements, but P. p. holomelaena is migratory, spending the southern winter north of the breeding range. The nominate race P. p. pristoptera of the mountains of northern Ethiopia moves south after breeding.
The black rough-winged swallow is a small swallow at 13–15 cm length with a forked tail. Its plumage is blue-glossed black. Sexes are similar, but the female has shorter outer tail feathers, and less obvious wing serrations. Juveniles are brown with little gloss, and have short tails.
There are many subspecies of... Wikipedia →
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Black Sawwing sighting in Mana Pools National Park on a given day, based on 8 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 248th most-seen of the 275 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
November
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Black Sawwing in Mana Pools National Park on a given day, against under 5% in April–October and December–February, the lowest months. March has too few records to rate.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Black Sawwing sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
30th of 32
Of the 32 parks where we can rate Black Sawwing sightings, Mana Pools National Park ranks 30th at under 5%. The best odds are in Nyungwe National Park (Rwanda, about 60%), Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (Uganda, about 60%) and Aberdare National Park (Kenya, about 60%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Hirundinidae
The closest relatives of the Black Sawwing that you can see in Mana Pools National Park (family Hirundinidae, Swallows and Martins) are Wire-tailed Swallow (about 40%), Mosque Swallow (about 20%) and Plain Martin (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Black Sawwing is recorded against all the birds logged in Mana Pools National Park (8 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.
