Skip to main content Skip to navigation
Home
Today's Show: Feathered Females in Charge
Wilson's Phalarope shouts orders
Listen In
  • Today's Show
  • Listen
    • Daily Shows
    • Threatened
    • Grouse
    • BirdNote Presents
    • How to Listen
  • Explore
    • Field Notes
    • Sights & Sounds
    • Birdwatching
    • Resources for Educators
  • How to Help Birds
    • At Home
    • In Your Community
    • Success Stories
  • About
    • The BirdNote Story
    • The Team
    • Partners
    • For Radio Stations
    • Funding
    • Contact Us
    • FAQs
    • Support BirdNote
  • Donate

Swifts Roost in Chimneys

An amazing sight!
Subscribe to the Podcast
Download
  • Share This:
  • Share to Facebook
  • Share to Twitter
  • Share to Email
Chimney Swift with image showing chimney at Thompson Rivers University
© Thompson Rivers Univ.

What could bring crowds of people out after sunset on a September evening to stare at  ... a chimney? Swifts, of course! Scores of swifts form a funnel-shaped cloud above the right kind of chimney, then they begin their descent. First one, then a few more, then dozens, then hundreds swirl right down into the chimney. You can help Chimney Swifts and Vaux's Swifts by providing a roosting tower. Check out Related Resources for more information.
 

  • Full Transcript
  • Credits

BirdNote®
Swifts Roost – by the Thousands
Written by Bob Sundstrom

This is BirdNote.

[Sounds of crowds of people, gathering, some talking low]

Just what is it that could bring crowds of people out after sunset on a September evening to stare at …. a chimney?

[Twitter of Chimney Swifts]

Watch now. Here they come! [Voice of a child - Whoa!] Scores – perhaps hundreds – of small, dark birds whirling by, then forming a funnel-shaped cloud above the chimney. Now they begin to descend, first one, then a few more, then dozens, then hundreds, swirling right down into the chimney. Each bird goes in with its wings held high, as if parachuting, dropping inside to catch onto the rough interior, where it will hang until morning.

[Twitter of Chimney Swifts]

We’ve just witnessed a flock of Chimney Swifts enter their communal roost site for the night. These birds spend much of the year far to the south, in the Amazon basin of Peru. But in the spring, they head north, east of the Rockies, to nest. West of the Rockies, Vaux’s Swifts perform the same autumn ritual, before they head south to Central America.

The number of Chimney Swifts has dropped in recent years, in part because good old-fashioned chimneys are harder to find. You can help. Learn how you can alter an existing chimney or provide a roosting tower, to make swifts feel more at home. Begin at our website at BirdNote.org.

Support for BirdNote comes from Song Bird Coffee, offering bird friendly organic shade-grown coffee for over 20 years. Learn more at Birdnote.org/songbird.

###

Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Recorded by W.L. Hershberger.
"Spanish Crowd Chatting Sound" from "Immersive Ambiences: Europe Sounds Effects." Airborne Sound Library: 2007. Ambient sounds by Kessler Productions.
BirdNote’s theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Dominic Black
© 2014 Tune In to Nature.org     September 2017 / 2020    Narrator: Mary McCann
ID# CHSW-VASW-01-2014-09-11

Bob Sundstrom
Writer
Mary McCann
Narrator
Support More Shows Like This
Tagsbackyard sanctuary ecology migration Peru urban South America

Related Resources

See video of Chimney Swift Tower constructionChimney Swift – More at All About BirdsVaux's Swift - More at All About Birds

More About These Birds

Vaux's Swift (Chaetura vauxi)

Chaetura vauxi

Chimney Swift (Chaetura pelagica)

Chaetura pelagica

Sights & Sounds

Birds connect us with the joy and wonder of nature. By telling vivid, sound-rich stories about birds and the challenges they face, BirdNote inspires listeners to care about the natural world – and take steps to protect it.

Support BirdNote

  • Daily Shows
  • Field Notes
  • BirdNote Presents
  • Sights & Sounds
  • About BirdNote
  • Contact BirdNote
Sign up for our newsletter!
  • BirdNote on Facebook
  • BirdNote on Twitter
  • BirdNote on Instagram

Copyright 2021. All rights reserved.

  • Privacy Policy