Bird school

• Brambling
• Blue tit
• Bullfinch
• Blackbird
• Barn swallow
• Bohemian waxwing
• Black woodpecker
• Black redstart
• Blackcap
• Chaffinch
• Chiffchaff
• Crow
• Coal tit
• Crested tit
• Common swift
• Common treecreeper
• Dunnock
• Fieldfare
• Greenfinch
• Goldfinch
• Greater woodpecker
• Garden warbler
• Great tit
• Green woodpecker
• House martin
• House sparrow
• Hawfinch
• Jackdaw
• Linnet
• Long-tailed tit
• Lesser whitethroat
• Lesser spotted woodpecker
• Marsh tit
• Magpie
• Mistle thrush
• Nightingale
• Nuthatch
• Pheasant
• Pied flycatcher
• Redpoll
• Rook
• Redstart
• Robin
• Spotted flycatcher
• Siskin
• Starling
• Song thrush
• Yellowhammer
• Winter wren
• Willow
• Tree sparrow
• Wood pigeon
• White wagtail
• Willow tit
• Whitethroat

The common swift

Did you know?

The male

When swifts sleep while flying at high altitudes, it is assumed that they sometimes rest on the rising thermals and doze off for a little while. They have to beat their wings from time to time to gain altitude again.

Appearance
Swallow-like bird with narrow scythe-shaped wings and a deeply cleft tail. The bird is a matt brown-black with a grey throat, small beak, big mouth and extremely short legs where all four toes point forward.

Sounds and song
The flight call is shrill and repetitive.

Food and bird tables
Relies entirely upon finding its food in the air, and its diet consists of very small insects such as spiders, plant lice etc.

The nest and hollows
Will settle in hollows if they have the right shape. Will start breeding after the age of four. The nest is placed in a hollow in a building, mainly under roofing tiles. Unfortunately, there is no room for nesting under modern tiling which means nesting boxes especially developed for the species can help stop the decrease in numbers. Will usually build with materials they catch in flight.