Swift Facts

Swifts are amazing, beautiful birds. Supreme aerialists, they spend almost all their life in the air, and can fly up to 20,000 feet high. They feed, drink, mate and sleep on the wing, and only land to breed. A young Swift will spend its first two or three years in constant flight before it breeds.

Swifts are in London for just three months each Summer, then they migrate to Central and Southern Africa to spend our Winter there. While they are with us they fill our Summer evenings with aerobatic, amazingly fast flight, elfin screams, daring and drama.

Since Roman times, Swifts have nested here in man-made buildings. Originally cave, tree-hole and cliff nesters, they switched their nesting to high man-made structures, under tiles, in the eaves, in lofts, spires and towers.

Fully protected by UK laws (it is illegal to kill or harm them, to damage their nests or take their eggs) Swifts do no harm, make little or no mess. They eat flying insects, catching as many as 40,000 each every day. The parent birds eat most of the chicks' droppings (probably to recycle the mineral content); there are no piles of droppings beneath their nests.

Swifts nest almost only in pre-1944 buildings. While 10% of homes built before 1919 can house Swifts, the figure for inter-war housing is 7%, and for post-1944 housing only 1.4%. This is because modern buildings deny Swifts access to breed, and so do refurbished or re-roofed older buildings when their eaves are obstructed or sealed.

See what tragedies happen when Swifts' nest holes are blocked - click on the Swift button


Modern loft ventilation grilles create Swift-proof eaves on this new house in St Neots, Cambridgeshire. This estate will never host Swifts.	An ancient timber house in Rye, East Sussex, has had its eaves netted to keep out birds. Why do this when Swifts have shared our roofs harmlessly for over 2000 years? Photos © Edward Mayer

We are losing our Swifts fast! Between 1994 and 2006 the number of Swifts breeding in South East England halved. Why? There are four obvious causes. Large sums of money have been given by the National Lottery to refurbish decaying historic buildings, sometimes sites for nesting Swifts. More significant in terms of the numbers affected, since 1997 there has been a major refurbishment of social housing, a popular place for nesting Swifts. Demolition of old buildings is also a cause of nest site loss; the replacement buildings invariably exclude Swifts. On top of all that, it is now fashionable to convert old factories and warehouses into apartments and offices, and they too were often prime Swift nesting sites. These old buildings are always refubished or rebuilt to modern standards, with sealed roofs and walls, and no space left for harmless, beautiful and life-enhancing Swifts.

Dead Swifts - These birds have tried and failed to get back into their nest sites, after they were blocked off by scaffolding and building wrapping. Stunned by repeated desperate attempts, they have fallen to the ground below, and on the left, drowned in a puddle, and on the right, been crushed by a vehicle. Photos © Jorge Sanz

As well as Swifts, many other birds are affected. The Swallow, House Martin, Sparrow and Starling have all suffered population crashes. They all rely on buildings for many of their nest places.

The Government has identified the profusion and richness of wild bird life as one of its "Quality of Life Indicators". Local authorities are asked to maintain and if possible enhance the biodiversity of their areas. The London Borough of Camden has identified the Swift as a "Flagship Species for the Built Environment", and is taking action to arrest its decline. You can ask your local authority to do the same.

The decline of Swift populations can be halted, even reversed. Local authorities in Amsterdam, Aylesbury, Basel, Edinburgh, West Sussex and Zurich have taken action to maintain their populations of these dramatic birds. If they can do it, so can others.

Making a place for Swifts costs little. Swifts will use DIY or commercially available nest boxes and trays which can be installed into old or new buildings. This doesn't imperil the structure, preserves the birds from extinction, and contributes much to our environment and quality of life.

Architects, Local Authorities, Developers and Builders have a special responsibility to protect the natural world, and Swifts come high on the list of vulnerable species their work may endanger. Minor low-cost coordinated initiatives in design and building will ensure that Swifts still fly in our skies and in our children's skies too.