A Hampshire housebuilder has met its target of installing 4,000 swift nesting bricks into its homes since 2016, creating a vast number of homes for the popular aerial bird.
With swifts back in UK skies this summer, housebuilder Barratt Developments is showing its support for the common bird – the fastest in level flight. In partnership with the RSPB, Barratt is helping to give nature a home by supporting wildlife on its new housing developments, and building new homes for swifts is an important goal of this partnership.
With much of the UK’s wildlife in trouble, the country’s population of swifts has also declined by 58% between 1995 and 2018, with the aerial birds being added to the UK red list of conservation concern last year.
Swifts are an urban species of bird, which use spaces in rooftops or in old buildings to make their nests. The species has seen a serious decline in numbers, in part, because modern building methods can eliminate the swifts’ access to rooftops, and old buildings have been demolished over the years, so reducing available nesting sites.
It is for this reason that Barratt has been working with the RSPB since 2016, to install special swift nesting bricks into the external walls of its new homes. And, having hit its goal of installing 4,000 swift bricks over the past six years, the developer has now announced a new target, which will hopefully see them installing an, even more impressive, 7,000 swift bricks by the end of 2025.
James Dunne, Barratt Developments Managing Director, Southampton Division, said: “Swifts are such important birds, and we are really pleased with the 4,000 swift bricks we have installed so far. We must keep on working hard with the RSPB, however, to give these birds even more homes, which is why we are raising our target by another 3,000, aiming to install some 7,000 swift nesting bricks in total in our homes across the country by 2025.”
Every year the swift helps announce the arrival of summer as they complete a 3,400-mile migration to nest and raise their young in the UK. They are the fastest bird in level flight, reaching up to 69mph, and don’t touch the ground for the first three years of their lives. Even after their early years, they only land to breed, continuing to eat, mate, and even sleep in the air.
Whilst Barratt is installing the innovative bricks across the country, it is mainly targeting ten key cities, identified by the RSPB, as places where swift numbers and nesting sites have been declining most. These ten key cities and towns are: Birmingham, Bournemouth, Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Ipswich, Manchester, Newcastle and Oxford.
The RSPB has also partnered with the Swift Local Network and charity, Action for Swifts, to develop Swift Mapper – a web and app-based platform that allows anyone to record swift activity and nesting sites. Records submitted to Swift Mapper help people to learn more about this iconic species and target conservation efforts. Swift Mapper is available online at https://www.swiftmapper.org.uk
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