Amazing Swift facts

• Swifts have one of the longest migrations of any bird, wintering in Equatorial and South Africa and travelling around 22,000km each year.

• Swifts spend just 3 months in their breeding grounds in Europe, taking advantage of long day lengths for feeding and gathering food for chicks.

• Swifts only land when they are breeding, and are 3 or 4 years old before they breed.

• Swifts sleep, eat, and can even mate on the wing.

• When Swifts fly around buildings in a tight group it’s called a screaming party due to the sound of their calls. It sounds like screaming to us, but Swifts hear individual notes.

• Swifts usually have just 2 chicks which spend up to 8 weeks in the nest before fledging.

• Parent Swifts can fly 100s of km to find food for their chicks if conditions are poor near the nest. Chicks go into torpor to survive the periods without food.