diff --git a/python/lib/sift_client/_tests/sift_types/test_ingestion.py b/python/lib/sift_client/_tests/sift_types/test_ingestion.py
index cd31221d61..9451b78da3 100644
--- a/python/lib/sift_client/_tests/sift_types/test_ingestion.py
+++ b/python/lib/sift_client/_tests/sift_types/test_ingestion.py
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
     ChannelConfig,
     FlowConfig,
     IngestionConfig,
+    _to_rust_type,
 )
 
 
@@ -72,6 +73,16 @@ def test_other_data_types_dont_require_special_fields(self):
         )
         assert channel.data_type == ChannelDataType.DOUBLE
 
+    def test_to_rust_type_covers_every_channel_data_type(self):
+        """Test _to_rust_type has a branch for every ChannelDataType, including BYTES."""
+        # Importing here to match the lazy import convention in sift_types.ingestion
+        from sift_stream_bindings import ChannelDataTypePy
+
+        for data_type in ChannelDataType:
+            # Raises ValueError("Unknown data type: ...") if a variant is missing.
+            assert _to_rust_type(data_type) is not None
+        assert _to_rust_type(ChannelDataType.BYTES) == ChannelDataTypePy.Bytes
+
 
 class TestFlowConfig:
     """Unit tests for FlowConfig model."""
diff --git a/python/lib/sift_client/sift_types/ingestion.py b/python/lib/sift_client/sift_types/ingestion.py
index d8db6d2070..97e905bd00 100644
--- a/python/lib/sift_client/sift_types/ingestion.py
+++ b/python/lib/sift_client/sift_types/ingestion.py
@@ -529,4 +529,6 @@ def _to_rust_type(data_type: ChannelDataType) -> ChannelDataTypePy:
         return ChannelDataTypePy.Uint32
     elif data_type == ChannelDataType.UINT_64:
         return ChannelDataTypePy.Uint64
+    elif data_type == ChannelDataType.BYTES:
+        return ChannelDataTypePy.Bytes
     raise ValueError(f"Unknown data type: {data_type}")