Cecropis abyssinica
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~60% in a week ~90%
The lesser striped swallow (Cecropis abyssinica) is a large swallow. It breeds in Sub-Saharan Africa from Sierra Leone and southern Sudan south into eastern South Africa. It is partially migratory with South African birds wintering further north. West African birds leave the north of the breeding range in the dry season.
This is a bird of wooded, mainly lowland habitats. The lesser striped swallow prefers less open habitats, and is replaced in montane grassland by the greater striped swallow, Hirundo cucullata. It is common and often found around human habitation.
The lesser striped swallow is 15–19 cm long. It has dark blue upperparts with a red rump and a rufous-chestnut crown, nape and sides of the head. The underparts are white with dark streaking, and the upper wings and underwing flight feathers are blackish-brown. The underwing coverts are tawny. The blackish tail has very long outer feathers; these are slightly longer in the male than the female. Juveniles are duller and browner, with less contrast and shorter outer tail feathers. There are five or six subspecies differing in the extent of the underpart streaking.
The lesser striped swallow has... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brazzaville | 🇨🇬 Republic of the Congo | |
| 2 | Kigali | 🇷🇼 Rwanda | |
| 3 | Maputo | 🇲🇿 Mozambique | |
| 4 | Dar es-Salaam | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 5 | Yaoundé | 🇨🇲 Cameroon | |
| 6 | Nairobi | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 7 | Durban | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 8 | Pretoria | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 9 | Zanzibar City | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 10 | Abuja | 🇳🇬 Nigeria |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Lesser Striped-Swallow sighting in Masai Mara National Reserve on a given day, based on 879 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 53rd most-seen of the 398 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 60%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May
In that month about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Lesser Striped-Swallow in Masai Mara National Reserve on a given day, against under 5% in September and October, the lowest months.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Lesser Striped-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.
21st of 44
Of the 44 parks where we can rate Lesser Striped-Swallow sightings, Masai Mara National Reserve ranks 21st at about 20%. The best odds are in uMkhuze Game Reserve (South Africa, about 70%), Gonarezhou National Park (Zimbabwe, about 40%) and Mikumi National Park (Tanzania, about 40%). All parks ranked.
Same genus: Cecropis
The closest relatives of the Lesser Striped-Swallow that you can see in Masai Mara National Reserve (genus Cecropis, Red-rumped Swallows, Striped Swallows, and Allies) are Mosque Swallow (about 10%) and Rufous-chested Swallow (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Lesser Striped-Swallow is recorded against all the birds logged in Masai Mara National Reserve (879 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.
