Chimney Swift September
Every evening this summer, the sky above Main Street fills with small, fast moving birds darting and chirping above the buildings. While they are unnoticed by most, it only takes one look up to realize these are not ordinary birds. Nicknamed “flying cigars” because of their slender, tube-shaped bodies, their amazing speed and constant aerial acrobatics make them hard to miss once you know what to look for. These are Chimney Swifts, and while they have spent the last several months performing every night on Main Street and throughout town, by the end of September they will all be gone.
Chimney swifts arrived here in May, focused on finding mates, building nests, and raising their young. They time their yearly appearance with the emergence of insect populations so that they are sure to find an abundance of mosquitoes, flies, and gnats. Just one swift can eat hundreds of insects in a day, making them a valuable ally in controlling pest populations during the warm months. At the end of September, they will embark on their journey south, flying thousands of miles to South America, where they will spend their winter.
While most birds can be spotted sitting in bushes, on buildings, or even powerlines, the only way to see a Chimney Swift is in the air. They are almost entirely aerial, and eat, drink, bathe, and even gather nesting materials while flying. Due to their unique feet, chimney swifts are unable to land on flat surfaces like branches or wires. Although chimney swifts may be all around us, many people never realize they are here.
Their feet are small and adapted for clinging, rather than perching, because they evolved to nest in large, hollow trees. As forests were cleared and old trees disappeared, swifts adapted by using masonry chimneys built by people. For more than a century, this relationship worked well. However, chimney swifts are again facing a housing challenge. Most homes built today don’t have chimneys, and existing chimneys are being removed, capped, or lined with smooth materials that swifts cannot grip. As a result, nesting and roosting sites have declined dramatically. The North American Breeding Bird Survey estimates that swift populations have dropped by more than 70 percent in the past 50 years.
If you have a brick chimney, please consider leaving it open during the summer months to provide habitat. Their presence here is a reminder that our homes and actions are part of a much larger network, stretching from the Amazon to our Midwestern skies. By making space for them, we ensure that future generations can continue to look up on summer evenings, hearing their cheerful chatter and watching their incredible acrobatics.
Author: Avery Wickham