The swift season is over - the last swift departed our colony on 7th August.
It’s been a good season …
The swift season is over – the last swift departed our colony on 7th August.
It’s been a good season in general in Sibford, with many more swifts around than in the last couple of years (a group of about 35 was the largest that I saw) and plenty of prospecting activity, where non-breeding swifts fly up to boxes to see if they are occupied. Neighbours have seen interest in boxes that were previously ignored. Fortunately, too, there was no sign of the kestrel that took three chicks last year and two the year before.
In all we had 5 breeding pairs in our Mannings Close colony, laying 14 eggs of which 13 hatched. Sadly one week-old hatchling fell out of its nestbox in the June heatwave, but all the others fledged successfully, untroubled by predators. The main events this year are recorded in my 2026 swifts blog.
Swifts are with us for all too short a time; we wish them safe journey to their entirely aerial season in the skies above southern Africa and look forward to their return next May.
The photo shows motion trails of two swifts leaving their nestboxes.
These pages log the progress of a small swift colony of four nestboxes in Sibford Ferris. The nestboxes were installed as part of a house extension in time for the 2016 swift season. They are located inside the loft space with short tunnels from inconspicuous entrance holes in the north-facing gable end.
If you want more information about swifts in Sibford, please contact me at swifts@thesibfords.uk
As usual, I logged the progress of our colony this summer at Swifts 2026. You may also be interested in the logs for 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020 and 2019.
Would you like to know more about swifts? Read this fascinating article about The Greatest Bird On Earth.
Swifts have been declining in numbers – by over 50% in the last 20 years in the UK – but you can help by putting up nestboxes designed for them, as several Sibford residents have done. The RSPB has guidance for choosing and installing boxes.
Tim Huckvale
Swift, Swallow or Martin?
Swallows and house martins are often mistakenly identified as swifts. This RSPB guide will help you distinguish them.
Please help the swifts!
Our swifts spend their lives almost entirely in the air – sleeping, eating and bathing on the wing. They stay in Africa during our winter but at the end of April they return to the UK with just one thing on their minds – to mate and raise their young. They pair for life and return to the same site each year to lay and incubate their eggs. They like to live in houses and churches, squeezing through tiny gaps to nest inside roofs. But as more old buildings are renovated and gaps in soffits are closed up, swift nest sites are fast disappearing.
This, in part, has resulted in swifts being added to the Red List, the UK’s highest conservation priority, needing urgent action. By installing a swift brick in a wall, or putting up a nestbox, you could give a pair a place to rest and raise a family, as several folk in Sibford have already done.
For more information, please watch this short video about swifts and what you can do to help them.
Screeching swooping sweeping the skies whirling circles whirring wings diving and dancing in perfect symmetry here and gone in seconds of soaring uplifting unexpected joy
This poem was published in Sibford Scene #444 (June 2022) and is included here by permission of the author “AMA”.
