---
title: "Brown-throated Martin"
description: "Riparia paludicola — Birds. 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."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/animal/brown-throated-martin
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Brown-throated Martin

> Riparia paludicola — Birds. 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.

- Scientific name: *Riparia paludicola*
- Category: `birds` (Birds)
- Habitats: `freshwater` (Lakes & rivers)
- iNaturalist observations: 1324
- Wikidata: [Q675850](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q675850)
- iNaturalist taxon: [11945](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/11945)

## Names

- en: Brown-throated Martin
- de: Braunkehluferschwalbe
- es: Avión Paludícola
- fr: Hirondelle paludicole
- nl: Vale oeverzwaluw
- pt: Andorinha-dos-charcos
- pl: Brzegówka mała

## Countries with the most observations

ZA (869), KE (116), TZ (51), ET (40), MA (31), NA (23), BW (16), ZM (9), ZW (5), LS (4)

## Summary

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).

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown-throated_martin

## Photo

![Brown-throated Martin](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/brown-throated-martin/medium.jpg)

Photo: Damien Wallace · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/294871977

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/brown-throated-martin?lang=en` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).