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Swifts are wheeling, screaming endurance athletes. They don’t touch the earth for nine months of the year and fly about 14,000 miles annually – travelling from sub-Saharan Africa to nest in the UK, then back again. In Britain, they’re the sign that summer is coming or taking its leave. In between, they provide a heart-soaring display of beauty. No wonder they’re beloved.

“Swifts spark joy,” says Hannah Bourne-Taylor, a passionate swift advocate and author of Nature Needs You: The Fight to Save Our Swifts.

“I used to lie on the kitchen table with my head outside the window watching them,” says Edward Mayer, founder of Swift Conservation. “They’re absolutely gorgeous … Like an aerial shark, in perpetual motion.”

Why do they need to be saved?

Our skies get quieter every summer: from 1995 to 2023, the UK swift population declined by 68%. “It is a pretty consistent decline,” says the RSPB’s migratory birds programme manager, Dr Guy Anderson, “and it’s pretty consistent wherever you look in the UK.”

The reasons are murky, but it’s likely that the loss of nesting sites is part of the picture. “In the past 100 years or so,” says Anderson, “we’ve started to change the way that we manage, build and renovate our structures, and that’s been gradually making it harder for swifts to find the little holes and nooks and access points into buildings that they need.”

But it’s not the only factor: “The other six-legged elephant in the room is insects,” he says. Most conservationists believe insect populations have declined and recent research on swifts suggests “periods of the worst bad weather do affect their breeding success”. Increased climate volatility means unseasonal weather events will probably become more frequent.

How can you help?

Become a nest detective
“Swift-watching is really fundamental to their survival,” Bourne-Taylor says. Knowing where swift colonies nest helps conservation groups focus their efforts. You can help by using the RSPB Swift Mapper app and website. “It’s an online citizen data recording tool, which allows anyone to plot sightings of nesting swifts,” says Anderson. The database now has more than 100,000 sightings – and the more that people contribute, the more complete and valuable the records become. Users look for spots that swifts are flying in and out of, or where they are gathering for their famed “screaming parties” – “when they’re doing their Red Arrow displays in big, whooping, boisterous groups”, as Bourne-Taylor puts it.

Be a swift brick champion
A swift brick is a small structure that can be fitted into cavities in building walls, providing a forever nest. “I’m obsessed with swift bricks,” says Bourne-Taylor. Her Feather Speech campaign lobbies for mandatory swift bricks in new builds. “It’s arguably the simplest nature recovery action ever; they’re so easy to install if you’re making an extension or building a house.”

“That’s the ideal time to get a swift brick, or two or three,” says Mayer, who says they can also be installed during alterations or repairs requiring scaffolding: “Pop out a couple of bricks and stick in a swift brick.” Swift Conservation trains planners, builders and architects on accommodating swifts in development, but it can also provide individual advice. If you can’t install your own brick, advocate for them locally: in addition to her national campaigning, Bourne-Taylor became a parish councillor, and her parish now asks new builds or extensions to include one swift brick.

Get boxing
Swift boxes are inexpensive to buy, but also fairly simple to make and install (Swift Conservation has advice and templates on its website). Your box should include a concave nest cup as a base for the the birds to build on, and be installed under the eaves at a minimum of five metres high, away from windows, with a clear flightpath (no powerlines or trees or other obstacles); it also shouldn’t be exposed to full summer sun. One box (or brick) is good; but if you have space, go for more. “Swifts like being in loose colonies, so if you can get three or four or five boxes in, so much the better,” says Anderson. If you can’t install safely yourself, Mayer recommends contacting TV aerial installers, who are often happy to come out for small jobs such as this.

Be patient and welcome other occupants
If another bird uses your brick or box (“Eight species of birds have been surveyed to breed in swift boxes and bricks,” says Bourne-Taylor), that’s fine. House sparrows – frequent swift box occupants – are another red list species needing help. “Having the nesting site for smaller birds like sparrows is really good for those birds, and also helps attract swifts,” says Bourne-Taylor.

“Swifts are big enough and mean enough that they will actually evict sparrows,” says Anderson (plus early-nesting sparrows may even fledge a brood before the swifts arrive).

Offering swifts hospitality can be a long game – they may not find or use your box or brick for a few years. But, with an average life expectancy of nine years (the oldest recorded swift in the UK was 17), when they do, you should have the pleasure of their company for many summers. “That is their home for life,” says Bourne-Taylor. “It’s the only ground they will ever intentionally touch in their whole lifetime. What an investment!”

Broadcast swift sounds
Playing recordings of swift calls can attract prospecting birds. Swift Conservation sells a CD or MP3 file that you can play from a windowsill during the season. June and July are especially good, says Anderson: “That’s when young swifts are most likely to be prospecting.”

Protect insects
Swifts are exclusively insectivorous, so anything you can do to protect and encourage insects will help them out: recent research found that a number of migratory bird species were leaving the UK underweight for their marathon journeys. “Creating wildlife havens, if you have a garden, or advocating for green spaces in your local community will collectively help all wildlife and the ecosystem as a whole,” says Bourne-Taylor.

Planting “anything that’s got flowers, nectar, fruit, berries, will support insect life, and support bird life,” says Mayer. “Sloes, hawthorne, spindle trees, broom … There are loads of plants. We need lots of nice bushy gardens and verges and hedges.” The RSPB has a wildlife gardening guide with more ideas.

Get involved in local swift stuff
What help swifts need most will depend on where you live: it can vary from intervening in planning, to campaigning, or creating a “swift street” (lots of nest boxes in one neighbourhood). If you want to get involved, contact a swift group (you can find your nearest through the Swift Local Network), talk to your nearest RSPB group, or look out for local activities in Swift Awareness Week (27 June-5 July).

Be a citizen scientist
Knowledge is power in conservation. “There’s a whole range of different citizen science schemes out there to contribute to,” says Anderson. The British Trust for Ornithology/RSPB/JNCC Breeding Bird Survey is one option; sign-up instructions are available on the BTO website.

Help grounded birds
“It’s usually young birds that end up on the ground; they misjudge their first flight when they leave the nest,” says Anderson. Juveniles need the help of a swift carer, but, he suggests, if you find an adult bird with full-grown feathers, “it’s worth having one go to see if it’ll fly off your hand. Put it on your hand, up as high as you can, and bounce your hand gently, so that the swift feels unstable and puts its wings out. Never, never throw: if it can’t fly anyway, it’s just going to nosedive.” If that doesn’t work, contact a swift carer: there’s a list on the Swift Conservation site.

Enjoy them
Swift season is so short and spectacular – enjoy it, says Anderson, and let it inspire you to help them out.