| Where Swifts Nest |
Swifts On The Nest - Photo David Callan
|
| Swifts are usually to
be found nesting under roof tiles, just inside the roof space of
a building or in holes in a wall. |
| Wherever
there is a local colony and holes in the eaves or broken pointing,
or missing tiles, they will eventually find suitable holes and move
in. Anyone who has watched a pair of swifts looking for a suitable
"home" will know how thoroughly and persistently they will investigate
anything that looks like a possible site. |
| It is not the case that they
only nest in old buildings. There are swifts nesting in houses built
in the 1960s/70s. |
| They
will generally be found to be nesting over 3m above ground level,
though like all our other generalisations that one is not infallible.
|
|
|
| All swifts
which are seen going into a site are not necessarily nesting, as
young non-breeding birds roost at nest sites - but that is an added
complication that does not need to make any difference to swift
nest site conservation - a roost site is a potential nest site. |
| Examples of Nest Sites - |
| Examples of Nest Sites |
| Under Roofs or Tiles |
|
|
|
Swift flying over nest site at Ruchazie, Glasgow.
|
Mansard roof in Amsterdam - swifts enter under flashing.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Swifts are getting under the tiles of this 1970s house.
|
Swifts get under the roofs of these modern houses in Winchburgh, West Lothian.
|
|
| On Wall Head in Traditional Buildings |
|
|
|
Typical tenement back court where swifts nest.
|
Close-up taken from scaffolding of nest entrances - note the swift’s wing trailing along the wall as it gets to the nest from the entrance hole.
|
|
| Ladder Soffits, with a ventilation gap at the Wall Head offer access to roof space |
|
|
|
Church building. Photo Bill Murrells.
|
This housing estate in Crewe has been registered as a Grade A site of Biological importance on account of its swift colony.
|
|
| In Glasgow's Peripheral Estates Built from the 1930's until the 60's |
|
|
|
Typical street where swifts nest in the newer tenements.
|
They gain access via “defects” like this one.
|
| In Holes in Walls |
| These tend to be in older stone buildings, where pointing has crumbled to leave small holes |
|
|
|
Factory in Bardon Mill, Northumberland.
|
Close-up of one of the nest sites - only 0.2m from ground.
|
|
|
|
|
|
This remote castle on Loch Goil has a swift colony.
|
Gable end of church hall in Staindrop with swift holes.
|
| In Church Towers |
|
|
|
|
Church tower at St Mary's Ely. Photo by Bill Murrells.
|
|
| In Purpose-made Holes |
| Swifts have taken well to purpose-made holes (see also under "opportunities") |
|
|
|
In-built boxes in Amsterdam.
|
Man-made swift holes at Thirlwell Castle, Northumberland.
|
| Occasionally |
| In Old Woodpecker Holes. Photo - Ron Summers |
|
|
|
|
|
| In A Block of Flats |
| Is this the first record of a swift nest in a multi storey block. Photo - John Molloy - Glasgow July 2002 |
|
|
|
Wyndford flats, Maryhill, Glasgow.
|
Close-up.
|
|
