Cecropis senegalensis
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
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 Masai Mara National Reserve on a given day, based on 375 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 110th most-seen of the 398 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.
May and November–March
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Mosque Swallow in Masai Mara National Reserve on a given day, against about 10% in April and June–October, 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.
6th of 31
Of the 31 parks where we can rate Mosque Swallow sightings, Masai Mara National Reserve ranks 6th 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 genus: Cecropis
The closest relatives of the Mosque Swallow that you can see in Masai Mara National Reserve (genus Cecropis, Red-rumped Swallows, Striped Swallows, and Allies) are Lesser Striped-Swallow (about 20%) 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 Mosque Swallow is recorded against all the birds logged in Masai Mara National Reserve (375 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.
