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Swifts are a bird which have recently been put on the Red List of Birds of Conservation, of highest conservation concern. Swifts nest almost exclusively in buildings, making use of holes to raise their young, and are loyal to the same nest site every year. However, with lots of old buildings being renovated to improve insulation, small holes filled in or simply demolished, our swifts are losing their nesting sites. To help these birds, nesting sites can be provided artificially in the form of swift boxes or in the form of a ‘Swift Tower’ to help address the long-term loss of traditional nest sites in buildings.
A ‘Swift Tower’ is a collection of specially designed swift nest boxes (minimum 12) placed on a pole or structure at least 7m in height (which is the appropriate height for swifts to use), to house 12 pairs of swifts.
It requires a stand-alone, solar powered inbuilt ‘swift call audio system’ with mounted speakers, which plays the call of the swift at key times, to attract the swifts to investigate the box. The call will be set on a timer to play calls at certain hours of the day (just after dawn and dusk). Once Swifts are observed nesting in the Swift Tower, the audio system needs to be able to be de-activated and removed. In Spring, once the Swifts have arrived the Swift Call system will need to be re-activated and then switched off in autumn again when they leave to return to Africa.
In addition, it will require mounted solar panels and mounted IP65 weatherproof cabinets to house batteries. The battery needs to be designed so that it can be removed, charged and stored during the winter. However, if the calls stop working, the volume or on/off times need changing, the timer, battery, solar controller and MP3 player need to be accessible.
The ’Swift tower’ needs to be designed so that it can be left to its own devices and can be exposed to the elements, with no maintenance or damage issues, for minimum 10-20 years (depending on weather conditions). The ‘Swift Tower’ needs to be made of materials suitable for the outdoors location, including cladding with a natural weathering material, a waterproof GPR (glass reinforced plastic) roof and IP65 weatherproof cabinet, and stainless steel exterior fixings.
The ’Swift tower’ should also be designed to be maintenance free, apart from small repairs, such as the wooden boxes and the solar panel/ caller system. But if required the Birdbox itself needs to be able to be removed from the top of the column.
The footprint of the tower will be very small (approx. 2m²). Drawings of the foundation need to be provided, but the foundations will be delivered by Monmouthshire County Council itself.
This is very important, the typical size for a nest chamber is a 200mm wide x 400mm long floor area by 200mm high. Other shapes, e.g. a square floor, say 275mm x 275mm, would also work well. With a folded wing-length of 175mm, Swifts cannot turn around in anything less without damaging their feathers. The entrances to the nest places must be rectangular 30mm high x 65mm wide, in order to exclude larger birds like Starlings, Feral Pigeons and Jackdaws. The hole should be fitted either in the base of the box or in the front, no more than 25mm above floor level. (information taken from Swift Conservation website).
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