AnimalvsAnimal
A sand martin cleaning the sand out of its feathers🐦

Photo: Andy Morffew · CC BY-SA 4.0

SpeciesPasseriformesHirundinidae
Birds

🐦Sand Martin

Riparia riparia (Linnaeus, 1758)

The sand martin, also known as the collared sand martin or common sand martin, and in the Americas as the bank swallow, is a migratory passerine bird in the swallow family Hirundinidae. It has a wide range in summer, embracing practically the whole Holarctic area, from Europe, across Asia to the Pacific Ocean, and throughout North America. It winters in eastern and southern Africa, southern Asia, and South America.

Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

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Photos
1
Measurements
12
vs you
≈ 1/4,880th of your weight
Conservation status
LCLeast concern

IUCN Red List assessment, 2025.

Population trendDecreasing
Key measurements
Body mass
0.01 kg
Body length
not recorded
Shoulder height
not recorded
Top speed
not recorded
Bite force
not recorded
Maximum lifespan
10 years
All measurements ↓
Facts and figures

Everything we know about the Sand Martin

Typical adult figures. Where a value is an estimate rather than a measurement, it says so.

Body mass
0.01 kg
AVONET
Other figures ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Figures vary

  • 0.01 kgAnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: acceptable
Tail length
0.05 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Wing length
0.1 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Beak length
0.01 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Tarsus length
0.01 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Maximum lifespan
10 years
AnAge
Details ↓

data quality: acceptable

Source: AnAge · AnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR) · CC BY 3.0

Gestation
15 days
AnAge
Details ↓

data quality: acceptable

Source: AnAge · AnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR) · CC BY 3.0

Litter size
about 4
AnAge
Details ↓

data quality: acceptable

Source: AnAge · AnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR) · CC BY 3.0

Trophic level
Carnivore
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Habitat
Riverine
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Lifestyle
Aerial
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Volume l
0 Laverage
Details ↓

Body mass at ~1.0 kg/L, the density of vertebrate tissue.

average = a mean across sexes or species in a group.

Not recorded for Sand Martin yet: body length, shoulder height, top speed, bite force.

Where it sits

Family tree

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. ›phylumChordata
  3. ›classAves
  4. ›orderPasseriformes
  5. ›familyHirundinidae
  6. ›genusRiparia
  7. ›speciesRiparia riparia
Full lineage
  1. orderSauria
  2. classBirds · Aves
  3. orderPerching birds · Passeriformes
  4. familyHirundinidae
All 11 branches ↓
  1. kingdomMetazoa
  2. phylumChordata
  3. subphylumCraniata
  4. subphylumVertebrata
  5. superclassGnathostomata
  6. superclassSarcopterygii
  7. superclassTetrapoda
  8. orderSauria
  9. classBirds · Aves
  10. orderPerching birds · Passeriformes
  11. familyHirundinidae
More

More about the Sand Martin

Closest relative on this site
🐦 Barn Swallow — last shared an ancestor ≈ 20 million years ago.
In other languages
Riparia riparia (es), 崖沙燕 (zh), brzegówka zwyczajna (pl), partifecske (hu), backsvala (sv), oeverzwaluw (nl) … and 26 more languages
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