Make a home
for Swifts
Find out how you can help make a home for Swifts, and protect existing Swift nesting locations
Swifts have shared their homes with humans for centuries. They’ve reared their young under roof tiles, in old buildings and in cracks and crevices under eaves and have remained relatively undisturbed while traditional building materials and practises were being used.
These nesting sites are now being destroyed on a grand scale as we re-roof our homes, fit plastic soffits and boards and refurbish or demolish old buildings. Each year, many adult Swifts returns to the UK from Africa to find their ancestral nest holes blocked. When this happens they try repeatedly to gain access to their nest site and often fatally injure themselves in the process. Swifts have declined by over 60% since 1995.
Swifts need your help now!
Protect existing Swift colonies
If you already have Swifts nesting at your house that’s fantastic. Record the location of the nests on Swift Mapper (see below).
If you’re planning to renovate or repair your roof, we can advise on how to protect your Swifts when work needs to be done on your house. There’s no need to sacrifice your Swift colony to get your home repaired. We can advise about the best way to manage your renovation work while ensuring your Swifts can still enter their nest sites. Contact us at leeds.swifts@gmail.com
If you’d like to expand your colony then read on...
Provide a home for Swifts
The good news is that Swifts do adapt to artificial nest sites. Swift conservationists across the UK are installing special Swift boxes on houses, in church spires and on schools, as well as fitting hollow Swift nesting bricks as part of new housing developments. Swift bricks can also be retro fitted into existing homes.
Follow these links for more information on the wide range of Swift nest boxes and Swift bricks available together with guidance on where and how to install them:
Play Swift calls
You’re more likely to attract Swifts to your home if they are already breeding in your area. This is because mature Swifts are attracted to the sound of an established colony when they’re looking for nesting sites. Seeing and hearing groups of Swifts flying fast together at roof top height and calling (called a "screaming party") indicates Swifts are nesting locally. Simply seeing Swifts flying high and feeding, does not confirm they are breeding close by.
When artificial sites are installed, we recommend that Swift attraction calls are played. With luck, passing Swifts will hear the calls and explore the artificial nest spaces with a view to breed the following year. These homeless Swifts are called ‘bangers’ which describes their behaviour when they fly up to potential sites, brushing them with their bodies. If a nesting adult is inside, it will defend the site.
For further information on attraction call systems, please visit:
Leeds Swifts can also provide more advice and guidance if needed.
If you used to have Swifts and they no longer visit your home then it’s probably because work has been done on your house in the past which has inadvertently destroyed their traditional nest site. By fitting nest boxes or retrofitting Swift nest bricks and playing calls you could attract them back.
Contact us at leeds.swifts@gmail.com for advice about where to site boxes, which type of nest box to use and how to get the equipment you need.
Recording where Swifts are nesting
It’s important to know where Swifts are nesting so we can protect these locations for future generations of Swifts. The best way to do this is to use Swift Mapper. Log the location of where you know Swifts are nesting or where you see and hear screaming parties of flying Swifts.