This is Bird Note.

The high-pitched calls of common swifts zooming overhead.

It's a welcome sound across Europe in the summer.

Common swiffs are expert aviators.

They do everything in the air.

They feed, they mate, and they even sleep while on the wing.

But swiffs come to earth to nest, and they don't mind having humans around when they

do.

When swifts are notorious for building their nest in eaves and under roof tiles and

gables, they adapted to take advantage of the structures built by us.

But the newer, sleeker buildings built today don't have the same kinds of nooks and crannies,

and that's bad news for nesting swifts.

In the past 30 years, the number of swifts in Great Britain has fallen by half.

But there's a clever way for people to help.

They're called swift bricks.

Little nest boxes designed to match the exterior of a building, and provide a good nook for

a nesting swift.

There are many styles of swift bricks designed to blend in with all kinds of building materials.

The bricks just need to have the right-sized entrance hole and a nesting cavity inside,

and the swifts just seem to love them.

Some North American swifts will nest around buildings too, but they prefer larger hollows

like chimneys.

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