Banded Martin
Riparia cincta
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
- KingdomAnimalia (Animals)
- PhylumChordata (Chordates)
- ClassAves (Birds)
- OrderPasseriformes (Perching Birds)
- FamilyHirundinidae (Swallows and Martins)
- GenusRiparia (Sand Martins, Plain Martins, and Allies)
- SpeciesRiparia cincta (Banded Martin)
About the Banded Martin
The banded martin or banded sand martin (Neophedina cincta) is a small passerine bird in the swallow family Hirundinidae that is endemic to Africa. It is the only species placed in the genus Neophedina. The banded martin was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1780 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux from a specimen collected from the Cape of Good Hope. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Hirundo cincta in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées.
The banded martin was formerly placed in the genus Riparia. A genetic study found that it belonged to a different clade to other members of the genus, and it was moved to the genus Neophedina that had been introduced in 1922 by the South African zoologist Austin Roberts. The specific epithet cincta is from Latin cinctus meaning "banded".
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Recent sightings of Banded Martin in Table Mountain National Park
LIVEiNaturalistClosest Relatives at Table Mountain National Park
Plain Martin
Riparia paludicola
Bank Swallow
Riparia riparia
Rock Martin
Ptyonoprogne fuligula
Black Sawwing
Psalidoprocne pristoptera
Barn Swallow
Hirundo rustica
Greater Striped-Swallow
Cecropis cucullata
White-throated Swallow
Hirundo albigularis
Pearl-breasted Swallow
Hirundo dimidiata
House Martin
Delichon urbicum
Red-winged Starling
Onychognathus morio
Cape White-eye
Zosterops virens
Southern Double-collared Sunbird
Cinnyris chalybeus
Global Distribution
Warmer areas are where this animal is recorded most often.