Common swift flying over the roofs of our cities
For 33 years SEO/BirdLife, the Spanish Society of Ornithology, has organized a popular vote to choose the Bird of the year and, in 2021, such a distinction has fallen to a very common bird in our urban skies, but whose behavior we have only recently begun to know and understand: the common swift.
Thanks to the recognition as Bird of 2021, the Swift –which has won with 49.48% of the votes, followed by the Gray Shrike and the Montagu's Harrier– will be the protagonist of a communication and conservation campaign with which SEO/Birdlife wants to draw attention to the problems it faces. And not just this species.
“The common swift is going to allow society to understand that we have to change the model if we don't want our skies to be left without a voice," says Asunción Ruiz, executive director of SEO/BirdLife, and she continues: “That we see fewer sparrows, less swallows or fewer swifts is not anecdotal but a powerful clear warning signal that We are facing an unprecedented ecological crisis that should force us to rethink our relationship with nature. The current development model does not work, it is not prepared to face the two great challenges that humanity faces and whose effects we are already noticing: climate change and the loss of biodiversity. The current global crisis we are experiencing forces us to integrate nature conservation with the development of human activities and the places where we live and work.
The swifts arrive in spring to breed in our country, before embarking on an epic migration
DID YOU KNOW…?
The hubbub of swifts in the skies of our cities is synonymous with the long days of spring and early summer. Shrii, the males claim, suiií the females answer.
“The first foreign ornithologists who arrived in Spain, in the mid-19th century, were already surprised by the number of swifts that were concentrated in Madrid. In Spain it nests almost exclusively in human constructions. They like cities with history and character, with large and old buildings in which to take shelter in the holes and loose tiles to make their nests”, explains Eduardo de Juana Aranzana, expert ornithologist and former president of SEO/BirdLife.
It is estimated that in Spain there are between 28 and 38 million swifts. They will stay until July, when they will again put heading towards Africa on a journey of more than 20,000 kilometers that will reach the jungles of Uganda, the savannahs and the coasts of Kenya and Tanzania. We discovered this epic route only five years ago thanks to the remote marking and monitoring of individuals carried out within the SEO/BirdLife Migra program, in collaboration with Fundación Iberdrola España.
This is the migratory route of the swifts, a journey of more than 20,000 kilometers