Don’t mess with a Swift

Swifts (Charles Cuthbert)

Sadly there seem to be fewer Swifts than usual around our village, but it has been a joy to watch a couple of pairs nest in our street. Who needs to watch lacklustre performances at Euro 2024 when you can watch them swoop to the eaves and squeeze through a tiny gap to the rapturous calls of the young. In near-darkness, it disgorges a pellet of insects collected from airspace perhaps many miles away and bound with its own saliva.

My attention was drawn to calls as both Swifts returned to next door’s nest. One bird clung to the fascia while its mate squeezed through the gap. Instead of a muted response, the shriek that followed caused me to grab my binoculars in time to watch the Swift emerge awkwardly from the hole, dragging a House Sparrow behind it!

Swifts have short legs with long claws so they can cling to a cliff or building – the family name Apus is from the Greek “a pous” which means “without a foot”. That sparrow can confirm that a Swift has feet as it was pulled by its wing, screeching, through the gap in the boards. The two birds dropped from gutter level to head height in a second. A House Sparrow is two-thirds the weight of a Swift, which is not designed to carry cargo. I ducked instinctively, at which point the Swift released its firm grip to avoid a crash-landing, and each flew off in a different direction.

Swifts sometimes evict nesting House Sparrows, which start their breeding season before Swifts return from Africa, and there is evidence of House Sparrows destroying Swift eggs. I’ll never quite know what happened here, but the Swifts were not to be messed with.

More than 2500 people have signed a petition calling on Welsh Government to require homes for Swifts to be incorporated into new buildings. RSPB Cymru and North Wales Wildlife Trust hope that it will gain further support during Swift Awareness Week.

Sightings in the last week include a Quail on the Dee estuary near Shotwick, Cattle Egret, Spotted Redshank and Little Ringed Plovers at RSPB Conwy and a Cattle Egret at RSPB Cors Ddyga. Eight Mediterranean Gulls were at Llanbedr, the first Wigeon of autumn at Porthmadog and a Sooty Shearwater was reported past Porth Oer.