5 things you can do to help swifts

Swifts are faithful to their nesting sites and are only here 3 months of the year - here's how you can help them.

Guest blog written by Camilla Barlow on behalf of Salisbury & Wilton Swifts.

Swifts in the UK are on the Birds of Conservation Concern (BoCC) Red List and are classified as Endangered on the IUCN Red List assessment of extinction risk for Great Britain. Their numbers declined by 60% between 1995 and 2020 and by 41% in just 10 years up to 2018, that is over 5% per annum! They are also listed by the Wiltshire & Swindon Biological Records Centre (WSBRC) as a Critical Species in Wiltshire.

Why are swifts struggling?

Areas of Local Authority housing quite often have swift nests because of the way they were constructed in the past with ‘open eaves’, but sadly as they are being renovated the swift nesting sites are being blocked and we have lost many swifts over the years.

Swifts are faithful to their nesting sites and are only here 3 months of the year - so if they cannot access their nesting site, they have little time to find a new one and breed in the same season.

1. Never destroy an existing nest site.

Always leave the original entrance open and be careful when renovating not to block entrance holes with scaffolding. Swifts are obsessively loyal to their nesting site and do not readily move on.

Swifts nest in nooks and crannies of eaves and gables (it is house martins that nest in mud cups hanging from eaves) and their nests are not easy to spot, they are often just a few feathers and bits of vegetation, all gathered on the wing.

2. Install a nest box or swift brick.

Retro-fitting an integrated swift brick is the better option. These are as little as £35 and can be faced to match the house brick. For example, see below photos sourced from Action for Swifts.

Alternatively, there are many external boxes available on the market and your local swift group will be happy to advise.

Swift brick. Source: Action for Swifts.

Swift bricks integrated in the side of a house. Source: Action for Swifts.

3. Make your garden wildlife friendly

Swifts catch their insect prey on the wing, so by make your garden wildlife friendly, don’t use pesticides and allow vegetation to grow to encourage more insects that swifts and so many other species depend on.

Jon Hawkins - Surrey Hills Photography

See more actions for wildlife

Take action for nature

4. Join a local swift group

Local groups include:

Find more local swift groups

5. Record swift nesting sites

Use the RSPB Swift Mapper to record known nesting sites.

There are many other ways to help such as getting local councillors on board, particularly when there is a new development in your area; watching out for and commenting on Local Plans to ensure new versions include BS42021: 2022 which provides a ratio of one integrated universal brick per dwelling; working with developers, ecologists and architects; responding to government consultations and more.