Coastal residents have been asked to assist BirdWatch Ireland in its survey to locate nest sites of the endangered Swift. “In an uncanny echo of our own housing crisis, we have created a housing crisis for Swifts, in many cases removing their existing nesting habitat and not providing new space for them to bring the next generation into the world,” Birdwatch Ireland says.
Close Encounter: A close-up of an endangered common swift. BirdWatch Ireland is encouraging coastal residents and volunteers to report nesting sites to help reverse the species' long-term decline in Ireland
“To help find nesting Swifts, BirdWatch Ireland is carrying out surveys in Donegal, Wexford, and South County Dublin and at several Office of Public Works (OPW) sites across Meath, Cavan and Tipperary, this summer, and needs your help,” it says.
Swifts are small, chocolate-brown-coloured migratory birds with a distinctive sickle-shaped silhouette, Birdwatch Ireland explains.
Their sickle-shaped silhouette is one of nature’s most clever evolutionary tricks, as the bird's aerodynamic shape means it is perfectly adapted to life in the air.
Swifts sleep, eat and drink on the wing, flying continuously from the moment they jump from the nest at six weeks old, until they are ready to nest at around three years of age. Outside the breeding season, all Swifts spend the day and night in the air. During the breeding season, Swifts traditionally nested in old-growth forests and cliff faces, and there are still some remnant populations nesting in these habitats, but the vast majority have adapted to nest in our buildings.
This strategy probably served them well over millennia. However, in recent decades, the number and frequency of building renovations have increased significantly, often excluding Swifts and other cavity-nesting birds from their nest sites.
“To make things even more challenging, new-builds tend to be very tightly sealed,” says Tara Adcock, BirdWatch Ireland's Urban Birds Project Officer. “This is fantastic from an energy efficiency perspective, but catastrophic for Swifts as these buildings offer no space for them to raise the next generation,” she says.
Swift Flight: A common swift in flight. BirdWatch Ireland is asking the public to help locate nesting sites as part of surveys to protect the endangered species across several Irish counties
“The reduction in available nest sites, coupled with declining insect populations and climate change, is pushing Swifts to the brink of extinction," BirdWatch Ireland, Ireland's environmental conservation charity, says. It estimates that between 1998 and 2023, 69% of Swifts disappeared from Irish skies.
BirdWatch Ireland Swift Surveyors have been working with the OPW since 2015, surveying OPW sites for Swifts, with 50 surveys carried out to date.
It has also worked with 23 city and county councils since 2017, cataloguing Swift nest sites in all survey villages, towns and cities, with 25 surveys carried out to date, including two county resurveys.“On a broader level, there is hope for the Swift, as there are practical solutions to the housing crisis they face. Homes for swifts can literally be built into our buildings using Swift bricks (bricks with cavities for nesting Swifts, which blend into the fabric of the wall), or they can be provided with nest boxes which are placed on the exterior of the building at appropriate sites,” it says.
“As Swifts are a clean and quiet species, they are perfect house guests, and these bricks and boxes can be used on buildings from hospitals, to schools, to private residences,” it says. Government and public bodies can maintain and enhance Swifts and wider biodiversity in the buildings they manage, a responsibility and privilege that Lorcan Scott, OPW’s Biodiversity Officer, recognises.OPW Swift site surveys are funded by the OPW, and the 2026 County Swift Surveys are funded by Donegal County Council, South Dublin County Council, and Wexford County Council, through the National Parks and Wildlife Service Local Biodiversity Action Plan.BirdWatch Ireland says that if you are aware of nesting Swifts, would like to get involved as a volunteer surveyor or would like more information on installing Swift nest boxes or bricks, please contact [email protected].
