Swifts are said to symbolise freedom, resilience, and an untamed spirit as they soar above us, masters of the air, beautiful and dramatic, one of our fastest birds, flying at speeds of between 24 mph and an unbelievable 69mph!
They winter in Africa, pair up for life, and return to us to nest and rear their young in mid-spring. Each year, they make this arduous journey from as far away as Tanzania or Zimbabwe, taking around 5 days to return to the same nest in which they have reared their young before.
Tragically, all too often, on return to us, they find that they cannot reach their old nest, the soffits (the boarding between house and edge of the roof) have been replaced or sealed up, and the tiny gaps which allowed them to squeeze through and create a simple nest in the eaves are gone. There are heartbreaking videos of distressed birds hurling themselves at now sealed soffits, endeavouring to access the gaps that lead to their usual nesting site.
Swifts are clean birds, the nests are small, and the birds do not create holes or do any damage to buildings and carry no diseases that could harm a human. The nests are made of but a few feathers, dry grass, and seeds, held together with saliva. Even the chicks’ droppings are eaten by the parent birds, a survival strategy to ensure no predator spots them, and to reabsorb nutrients.
BUT the number of these beautiful birds has plummeted. Research tells us that they have lived amongst us for millions of years, and colonies of swifts use the same nesting sites for generations, but we are losing them. There is an over 60% decline in their numbers since 1995, and they are now on the red list. What have we done!
In our drive to seal up every last crevasse in our homes, we have driven them away, for every 10 that whirled across our summer skies in 1995, only 3 now remain.
These birds are incredible natural pest control, one adult consuming up to 20,000 insects DAILY …mosquitoes, aphids, ants, gnats, and more.
But together we CAN change all of this…the RSPB worked with the building world to create a swift brick, a hollow brick, only accessed by a small hole in the front, which simply replaces one brick in your home. Easily installed in a new build or extension, but not hard to retrofit into an existing wall. Alternatively, there is a wooden swift box which can be fitted to your eaves if you prefer.
This is an appeal to all of you who build, plan, extend, or repair our homes, leave holes that a swift may use, consider offering to use a swift brick in the build.
And finally, for us all, consider having a swift brick put into the brickwork (BS 40421: 2022), or an external box placed onto a soffit, on a north or east-facing house side.
A small thing with huge consequences.
By Kate Southworth
