Rutland County Audubon society

Chimney Swift Recovery Project

new swift tower in RutlandIn the spring of 2021 Rutland County Audubon, funded by a grant, and with the help of the Stafford Technical Center of Rutland High School and the Rutland Recreation and Parks Department, constructed a Chimney Swift tower at the Giorgetti Athletic Complex adjacent to Pine Hill Park. Hopefully this will help swifts who lose their nesting options. Read here about the amazing Chimney Swift.

Chimney Swifts (Chaetura pelagica) are native birds whose populations have been declining in recent years.  Swifts are extremely well suited for flight and feed on insects they encounter while patrolling.  They rarely land except for sleeping and nesting.  In fact, their legs are very reduced and only good for clinging onto walls while using their pointy tail feathers for additional support.  Their natural nesting places included hollow trees and cave-like openings.  Man-made chimneys are readily accepted as well.  However, modern practices have reduced the number of large dead trees and chimney caps are sealing off their favored nesting option.

Chimney Swifts are migratory here in Vermont.  They usually begin arriving back in the area in late April or early May. Their nests are built of twigs which they break off from the tips of dead branches by grabbing them while in flight.  The twigs are glued together, and to a wall, with a sticky saliva the birds produce.  (In SE Asia, the nests of the Edible Nest Swiftlets, a relative of chimney swifts, are harvested and boiled to dissolve the saliva in the making of bird’s nest soup!)  A clutch or 3-5 eggs is laid in a nest that is roughly 4 inches wide, protrude 2-3 inches from the wall, and is about 1 inch deep.  As with most cavity nesting birds, the eggs are white. Chimney swift adult returning to the nest. (Marble, Charles C;Higley, William Kerr, 1860-1908, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons)

The diet of swifts consists primarily of thousands of insects they sweep up in their aerial foraging.  Mosquitos, flies, spiders, flying ants, aphids, and beetles are some of the “aerial plankton” they feed upon.  They can often be heard twittering overhead.  Swifts appear to alternate their wing movements with one wing up while the other is down.  In reality, high-speed cameras have shown that this is an illusion caused by a rapid rotation of the body from side to side.  If you see two swifts flying together with their wings up in a “V” shape, you are witnessing a courtship flight. You may also see the birds flying in trios which generally consist of two males flying behind a female.

Photo by Jeff Davis. (Jeff Davis | Facebook)

As young fledge, families may join together to roost in chimneys or other nest sites.  By the time fall migration is beginning, large numbers of swifts may share larger roosting sites providing an evening spectacle as hundreds or even thousands of birds funnel into the nighttime roost in a tornado like funnel as daylight fades.  Swifts depart Vermont in September or October, working their way down to the upper Amazon basin for the winter.