Description

Swifts are amazing birds. They do everything in the air – feeding, drinking, sleeping and even mating. The only time they land during their whole lives is while they are nesting. They fly to Southern Africa each August and return to the same nest in the following spring. Swifts are almost entirely reliant on finding a place to nest in the roofs of our homes.

But our swifts are in trouble. According to data gathered by the British Trust for Ornithology we have lost 70% of our swifts here in SE England in the last 27 years. The reason for the decline is our changed methods of house construction with much more insulation, and the use of plastic fascias and soffits to replace the timber that had been used for centuries for this purpose. Plastic does not warp, shrink or rot and so once plastic is fitted, swifts are excluded.

Hampshire Swifts are educating people on the problem and striving to reverse the decline of swifts in our county by providing an ever-increasing supply of suitable nest sites for our swifts.