Save Our Swifts

Birds reliant on cavities within buildings are losing their nesting habitat on a national scale without mitigation and are in critical decline as a result. Mandating swift bricks would secure nesting habitat for the whole category of cavity nesting birds accommodating 8 species. There is, and never will be, no natural cavity nesting habitat in new builds since modern materials are deliberately made from materials that will never erode. The candle is burning at both ends for these birds and for swifts, who are 100% reliant on cavities, they’re on the brink of extinction as a result. If they cant breed they cant stabilise their populations. Mandating swift bricks would preserve everyone’s most accessible touch point to nature, no matter our age, mobility or urban location. The birds’ future is in our hands because our home is quite literally their home. We must remember our walls also belong to adventurers. I launched the swift brick campaign in 2022, supported by the eNGOs, Natural England and many cross party politicians. Even Jeremy Clarkson says so, writing about it in his Sunday Times Column.  Jeremy Clarkson: spare a thought for the real victims of the housing crisis

What can we do politically?

There is a swift brick law being proposed now by tory peer Zac Goldsmith, that the Conservatives can pass in the House of Lords in July, and the Government can embrace any time, seeking swift bricks be incorporated into Building Regulations.

Swift actions:

1.Email Angela Rayner simply asking her to mandate swift bricks and put that in the subject line too.  angela.rayner.mp@parliament.uk

2.Email Kemi Badenoch, and Shadow Housing Secretary, Kevin Hollinrake, simply saying ‘Please pass the swift brick amendment in the House of Lords’. Put ‘Save Our Swifts’ in the subject line.

Kemi Badenoch  loto@parliament.uk

Kevin Hollinrake kevin.hollinrake.mp@parliament.uk

(You’ll get an automated response but if enough emails are sent, whoever is manning the email will pass a message on which will be more effective than signing a petition as over half a million people have signed swift brick petitions and they have gone ignored. If the 110,000 people who signed my government petition did this, I think the government would act.)

3. Make it your mission to get your MP onside, by getting them to sign the EDM Securing habitat for endangered swifts and other cavity nesting birds – Early Day Motions – UK Parliament

What can we do personally?

Don’t block up swift nesting sites. Raise awareness in your local area, especially if there are swifts. Put up a swift brick or box up. Spread the word using this document or this article: Swifts’ decline: how can Britons help these remarkable birds? | Birds | The Guardian

Why are swifts epic?

Swifts are small black birds with a sickle-shaped silhouette, the weight of a kit cat, who fly almost 70mph in level flight, inspiring fighter jet design. They spend more time airborne than any other bird on earth, with adults spending 9 months of the year on the wing, flying to the rainforests in the Congo basin and young swifts spending 3 years in maiden flight. Doesn’t that just BLOW YOUR MIND? When they come home they come home to us, nesting in the nooks and crannies of our walls and rooves, often under the eaves. One of the most ancient orders of birds, dating back between 45-50 million years, they adapted to nest in our buildings once we’d felled the primal forests they lived in until the 17^th century. A whole category of birds – cavity nesting urban birds– are either semi or exclusively reliant on cavities within our buildings to breed. For swifts, this reliance is 100%, and the nook or cranny that an adult breeding pair of swifts uses as a nest, is their home for life because they’re site loyal. The small nesting hole is the only ground they will ever intentionally touch in their lifetime, which given they can live for over twenty years, means they’re long-standing members of our communities whether we realise or not. Every August swifts leave the villages and towns of Britain and the following May they return to the exact nesting site. They’re now on the brink of national extinction in Britain and a brick with a hole in it could save them.

Why are they endangered?

The cavities that swifts and other birds nest in are being inadvertently blocked or destroyed by us, all across the country, on a national scale. Countless renovation (think re-pointing walls), demolishment, conversions and extensions, and the national scale, government-funded push for insulation (think soffits and other external wall cladding) are destroying cavity nesting habitat. The government’s budget for insulation schemes has just gone from £1 billion to £13.2 billion and it will be spent in full, the majority of it, on external wall insulation. There is no mitigation for the inadvertent destruction for cavity nesting habitat. Swifts often fatally break their wings and necks trying to get in to their nest sites, and if they survive are finding it increasingly difficult to find a new nesting site in time for them to breed. With only one small brood a year and the shortest breeding season, this is a species that desperately needs to stabilise but is not one that can easily ‘bounce back.’ No cavity nesting birds have any legal protection of their nesting habitat outside of the breeding season and during the breeding season, even though just like all British birds, it is a crime to disturb, destroy of block active nesting sites, scaffolding is put up in the summer, blocking countless nests to renovate and insulate, often equating to councils and housing associations breeching the Wildlife and Countryside Act. This wildlife crime has fatal consequences with the chicks being blocked into their nests, starving to death, and the adults unable to rest until they return to Africa. The following year, those adults will return to the same place, hoping to get in. The equation spells out a nightmare. 4 cavity nesting birds are on the Red List – house sparrow, house martin, swift and starling, all declining over 50% since the mid 1990s. For swifts, their rapid breeding population decline of 62% between 1995-2020 left the population at an estimated 59,000 pairs but since then they have continued to decline to fewer than 40,000 pairs. If they can’t breed, they can’t stabilise their population.

What can be done?

The simplest action comes in the form of the government incorporating a brick with a hole in it called a swift brick, into Building Regulations. Swift bricks provide nesting sites for 8 species of birds. They are zero maintenance, fully sustainable, as cheap as £34, and thanks to the specific British Standard for integral bird nest boxes, can be installed without ecological assessment by someone without expertise. With a range of designs manufactured by small companies such as Action for Swifts, all the way up to Manthorpe, Ibstock and Wienerberger, purchases can be made direct or from wholesalers, Wildcare and Green&Blue. As a measure, swift bricks are incomparable to supplementary biodiversity measures. Problem is, nowhere near enough swift bricks are being installed. That’s where the idea of mandating comes in. Housebuilders have made big commitments to install voluntarily and the government has recently announced the idea of creating a planning policy but the risk of it being ineffective is sky high: the non compliance of developers installing swift bricks when stipulated by the Local Planning Authority is a staggering 75%. Enforcement is in doubt since many LPAs have cut their enforcement teams altogether or operate at 20% effectiveness or less due to backlogs and being under resourced. Mandating would ensure enforcement, level the playing field and guarantee the right guidance was followed so the swift bricks go in the right places, with the necessary exemptions for the odd occasion where a swift brick might be deemed inappropriate. Unfortunately despite the national swift brick campaign, launched in 2022, both the former and current government have refused to mandate swift bricks…. so far.

What about the existing nesting sites?

Protecting and mitigating the loss of existing nesting sites is crucial but because it’s so much harder to enforce, it is something that we all need to be more aware of so that each homeowner, council, housing association and builder, can actively consider the nooks and crannies in walls and remember we share our buildings with epic adventures whose cavity homes are precious. Leaving nesting sites open while pointing around them works well, as does installing soffit swift boxes, designed within the soffit to allow work to be carried out (between September and April). Retrofitting swift bricks is ‘a thing’ and external wooden swift nest boxes, available across the internet, are a great investment for anyone wanting to be proactive for birds. Swift bricks can be installed on any wall except for south facing, placing right up under the eaves, preferably with open access in front if possible. House sparrows are likely to move in first and they help prospecting swifts find new nesting sites. House martins also use swift boxes which offer a lifeline to them too (although house martin cups also work well) as house martins are struggling to get their mud nests to stick on plastic soffits. Great tit, blue tit, nuthatch, wren and starling use swift bricks.

What do the experts say about all this?

Natural England and all the environmental NGOs are urging the government to incorporate swift bricks in to Building Regulations. Gibraltar faced the same bird declines in the 1990s and has ensured swift bricks are incorporated into all new houses and nesting site loss is directly mitigated. The Netherlands passed legislation to include in their Building Regulations. The Swift Local Network unites swift lovers across Britain. Made up of over 120 local swift conservation groups, volunteers go out of their way to look out for their local swifts, often collaborating with local councils and housing associations to ensure nesting sites are protected as one cul-de-sac being fitted with soffits by a Housing Association say, could wipe out whole colonies of swifts. Staring a swift group, noting where swifts are, and keeping their homes safe all year round has a huge impact and can be done by anyone who has the interest to watch to see where they swifts are within villages and towns.

Would people benefit?

These urban birds are everyone’s most accessible touch point to nature, no matter our age, mobility or urban location. So mandating swift bricks to ensure national scale installation of nesting sites for these birds is a simple action with a huge, tangible impact on the birds and us because without swift bricks, that connection is severed for us and generations to come who will grow up in new builds, sterile of these feathered neighbours.

The swift brick campaign

I launched the campaign unclothed, walking through London The Feather Speech Film (well how else does a nobody gather 100,000 signatures in 6 months for a government petition? – it worked as a good start- she got 110,000 signatures and cross party political support.) I have met over 50 politicians and has successfully got the official support of the Greens, Lib Dems and Reform and many Labour and Conservative politicians, including Lord Zac Goldsmith who, in a show of unprecedented alliance, accompanied Hannah to a government meeting as Hannah arrived in the nude. 

Why should we do anything?

If we ignore this problem, we will be the first country in the world to cause the national extinction of one of the most iconic birds on earth.

Would building regulations really be suitable?

Air bricks are already included in Building Regulations. Targets outlined in Acts have been implemented through Building Regulations and swift bricks would contribute to the targets set out in the Environment Act to halt biodiversity loss by 2030. It would not take that long for this small change to be made by the government if they wanted to do it and once it was in place, it would be serving the birds indefinitely.