Skip to content

'Significant' increase in swifts using nest boxes

George KingSuffolk
Jon Wright/BBC Eddie Bathgate standing in front of a bush outside a home. He is holding a nest box and wearing a green jumper over a blue shirt. He is smiling and looking into the camera. Jon Wright/BBC
Eddie Bathgate believes the increase in the number of nest boxes being put up across Suffolk is helping boost the swift population

The number of nest boxes being used by swifts is continuing to increase year-on-year, according to the latest data.

Save Our Suffolk Swifts is a project between the Suffolk Wildlife Trust and Suffolk Bird Group designed to reverse the rapid decline of the endangered species.

One way it is attempting to achieve this is by encouraging the installation of nest boxes where the red-listed species can breed.

The approach has been working, with its figures from 2025 showing a "significant increase" in the number of boxes being put up.

Suffolk Bird Group A black and grey swift is sat on the corner of some wood. It has a small body, and two long wings, and its head is tilted to face the camera. Suffolk Bird Group
Swifts have an unmistakable, high-pitched scream and are the fastest birds in level flight

Save Our Suffolk Swifts said 504 boxes were used at 138 different locations in Suffolk last year, up from 379 boxes at 85 locations in 2024 and 263 in 79 places in 2023.

The boxes are located at people's homes and at various schools, churches and other elevated buildings across the county, from Bury St Edmunds to Leiston.

"There's so many people who have put so much effort into installing nest boxes, so it is fantastic and very exciting," said the group's Eddie Bathgate.

"We've now got 500 boxes showing signs of swift activity in the county - that's up from one or two back in 2011, so that's an enormous increase.

"There's a lot of very happy people around Suffolk who are now able to watch swifts, and their daring summer displays."

Suffolk Bird Group A swift, that is black and grey, is perched under a roof tile with its back feathers facing the camera. The red tiles sit on top of a wooden building. Suffolk Bird Group
The nest boxes are located on various different types of buildings across the county

Swifts, which have a short-forked tail and very long swept-back wings, fly to the UK from Africa each spring to breed.

But between 1995 and 2016, the estimated average population of the birds - which reach speeds of 69 mph (111 km/h) - fell by more than 50% in the UK.

Bathgate, however, believes the efforts of the county's bird-loving population are making a big difference.

"You go to places like Framlingham, Waldringfield, Bury St Edmunds and parts of Woodbridge, and they've all got large swift populations in nest boxes," he said.

"But people there wouldn't have seen swifts 10 years ago.

"We have shown that we can create new colonies and expand existing ones with the use of nest boxes."

Follow Suffolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.

More on this story
Related internet links