 Take-Off! A
Swift leaves its nest box in Denmark - our fastest bird in level
flight! Photo
© Inger Lund
Tragically, we have
lost over half our Swifts in just the past 25 years.
Find out here all about these amazing birds, why they matter, and how you can help them. Though Swifts only spend 3 or 4 months each Summer with us, while they are here they bring spectacular aerial action and excitement to our urban lives! Swifts breed from Ireland to Beijing, from the Mediterranean and the Middle East right up to the Arctic, but sad to say, everywhere they are in decline. But you can help them, and you can do it personally, all on your own, or with the help of a few friends and neighbours, and if you can do D I Y, it will cost you very little indeed. Read on!
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They've gone! But with luck they'll be back next May Our Swifts have left for Africa. In early to mid-August we were watching
the last of their spectacular aerial displays as they got ready
to
leave us for another year. They were feeding up to get the energy
for their return flight to the Congo. You could see them high and low, over fields and rivers and ponds, snapping up flying insects and indulging in great screaming get-togethers. Now they are flying back to the Congo around West Africa and across the Sahel; amazing flights of extreme endurance. They will have left us, but with luck each Swift will come back to breed next May, maybe to your own house, or to your nestbox if you have put one up for them.
Swifts
have shared our buildings ever since the Romans
came to Britain and the deforestation of the British Isles started to
accelerate. That was when Swifts moved into our buildings. Nearly
all now breed in our eaves and gables, but cannot use modern and
renovated or insulated buildings as these exclude them. Unless we help them, Swifts will vanish from the UK. Use the Search Box above or study the Contents Page
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Architects, Developers & Builders
are you working at a Swift nest site? Follow this guidance 1. Leave existing nest places undisturbed 2. If re-roofing, make new nest access holes to match the old ones exactly 3. New build - internal nest spaces are the best 4. If you cannot do "3 " above, fit external nest boxes Installing Swift Nest Boxes? See
our Shopping Page
or
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Online talks - Book one now!
Talks Enquiries - Click on the Swift!  Our next public talks - Click on the underlined links to book your place 8 September Affinity Water Hertfordshire 11.15am ZOOM on-line talk (part of a conference that runs from 9am to 3.15pm with many good talks) 21 February Antrim RSPB Group 7.15 to 9pm ZOOM on-line talk 26 February Crookham Northumberland Village Society t.b.c. a real live in-person talk! See our recent Swifts Talk on You Tube - Click here See our interview with The Urban Birder - Click here Download ZOOM meetings software free here Supporting & Enhancing Urban Biodiversity We provide training for professionals in practical Urban Biodiversity techniques contact us for more details Swift Surveys - Click on the logos to participate How to Survey Swifts - download our leaflet here  Add your Swift sightings to BirdTrackand see migration in action! Use the new RSPB Swift Mapper App!  Download hereSupport the BTO's  By participating in the BTO Breeding Bird Survey you contribute to our knowledge of Swifts in the UK |
We have been providing free
advice on how to help Swifts since 2003
Swift Conservation is grateful to 
for its support
swift-conservation.org
name site texts © copyright Edward Mayer 2021 Photographs &
illustrations © copyright as indicated
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