Across the UK and Europe there are community groups, charities and individuals helping save swifts – will you join them?
We’ve gathered together some of the best tips and advice from these serious swift fans and you’ll find these below. These are all practical things that Stansted residents can do to protect these fascinating birds.
Learn to identify swifts
If you’re interested in learning about swifts but not feeling completely confident on how to identify them there are lots of resources available to help.
This short video from the BTO is a good place to start and includes recordings of their distinctive screaming call, a sound you’re likely to hear before you see them – https://youtu.be/8WzxTnfG2qA.
This page from the Woodland Trust compares the swift to the swallow and the house martin, species that are commonly confused – https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/blog/2022/05/swifts-swallows-and-martins-id/.
Record your swift sightings
When you can confidently identify swifts and are able to provide accurate details of the location of flocks and of active nesting sites then you can contribute your sightings to various monitoring schemes:
Record the first and last times you see a swift each year on the Woodland Trust’s Nature’s Calendar – https://naturescalendar.woodlandtrust.org.uk/add-a-record/.
You can also add your sightings to –
RSPB’s Swift Mapper – https://www.swiftmapper.org.uk/
BTO’s BirdTrack – https://www.bto.org/our-science/projects/birdtrack
Protect nesting sites
Once swifts start to breed, they return to the same nesting site year after year. For this reason it is important to ensure that known nesting sites are protected when renovation or development works take place at any time during the year but especially during the breeding season from May through to August/September.
Raising awareness of this issue amongst your neighbours and other local residents and businesses is the best way to do this.
In addition to letting others know that swifts are a threatened and protected species, directing them to the Swift Conservation website – https://www.swift-conservation.org – will enable them to see what a widespread and well supported initiative swift conservation is! There is also a whole page on their website devoted to carrying out roofing work without evicting your swifts – https://www.swift-conservation.org/Re-Roofing.htm.
If some work is being done which unavoidably affects a nesting site then leaving a gap into a partitioned-off section of the eaves which swifts can continue to use as a nesting site or by putting up a swift box once the work is completed will help mitigate the effects of any disturbance. This page on the Swift Conservation website provides lots of examples on creating and maintaining swift habitats in various buildings – https://www.swift-conservation.org/MakingHomesForSwifts.htm.
Despite the best efforts of awareness raising, nesting sites are still frequently affected and destroyed. If you do see attempts to disturb or remove active nests it’s important to report them. It can feel difficult and awkward to report such issues but remember that the disturbance of an active nest is a crime and birds are powerless to defend their habitats from human disturbance.
The RSPB also has some useful advice on reporting wildlife crime here https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/how-to-report-crimes-against-wild-birds
Install a swift box or two, or three!
If you are able to and have a suitable site installing swift boxes high on an exterior wall of your home or business is a fantastic way to help these birds. There are some amazing projects across the UK where communities have installed numerous swift boxes to provide long-term dedicated habitats for swifts. An ongoing project in Hertford has seen over 300 swift boxes installed across the town in Hertford. You can find out about the project on their Facebook page here – https://facebook.com/HertfordSwifts.
If you would like to install a nest box you need to consider the following –
The box needs to be at least 5m from the ground.
The flight path to the box should be clear with no obstructions such as trees – swifts cannot perch so they fly directly to the nest entrance. You just need to provide them with a clear run (or fly!) up.
The box should be installed in a position that won’t get too hot in the midsummer sun – so NOT on a south-facing wall.
Swifts are communal birds so if you can install more than one box this will be attractive to the swifts and also help maintain their communities.
Readymade swift boxes are available from a number of places including Peak Boxes, the RSPB and CJ Wildlife, to name just a few. Look out for boxes that are made from sustainable sources using FSC certified wood and other environmentally friendly materials or are from retailers that have strong environmental credentials!
If you are confident with a bit of carpentry then making your own swift box is actually very straightforward! You only need general household tools, such as a drill, a saw, a chisel, a hammer and some screws and nails as well as some durable wood such as hardwood ply.
There are some plans and instructions for various box types on the Bristol Swifts website here – https://www.bristolswifts.co.uk/swift-nest-box-design/ and further links to a whole load of other designs via the Action for Swifts blog here – https://actionforswifts.blogspot.com/p/diy.html.
Encourage the installion of swift bricks and nest boxes in new developments
Commenting on planning applications or writing to your local planning department to ask them to consider habitats for wildlife in new developments can have amazing results. Following campaigns by the local community and support from conservation charities the installation of swift bricks is now mandatory on developments over 5 metres in height in Brighton and Hove. A number of councils across the UK also now provide specific guidance on the integration of swift bricks to new builds.
If you hear about a development local to you that could incorporate swift nesting habitat make a comment on the application using the Uttlesford Planning Portal here –
https://www.uttlesford.gov.uk/planning-applications.
You need to create an account but the process is very simple now the comments can be submitted online.
It’s enough simply to ask if they have considered proving habitat for the local swift population and reminding them of their obligation to consider the environment and especially the needs of protected species in the process of approving planning applications
For guidance of how to engage with and influence the planning process in your local area this page from the RSPB is hugely useful – https://www.rspb.org.uk/helping-nature/what-you-can-do/protecting-wildlife-near-you/local-planning-pack-england
We’d love to hear about anything you do to help swifts in Stansted. Contact us and let us know!
Image credits:
From top to bottom –
Kent Hagan, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
XJochemx.nl, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Imran Shah from Islamabad, Pakistan, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Sustainable Stansted 