Article
Helping to save our swifts – a new chapter for Pontardawe Library
01 May 2025
The joyful screams of high-flying swifts have been a feature of our summers for hundreds of years but now the ancient bird is in danger of disappearing from our skies.
As part of a nationwide effort to help increase swift numbers, Neath Port Talbot Council’s Countryside and Wildlife Team has collaborated with the council’s Library Service to put up swift boxes on Pontardawe Library.
These will provide additional nesting space for up to 10 pairs of breeding swifts, to help address the long-term loss of traditional nest sites in buildings. The boxes are a human solution to the loss of nesting spaces in our buildings, which has been caused by renovations and sealing up of gaps in roofs.
They are screwed into the external walls of a building to provide a space in which a pair of breeding swifts can raise their young. These boxes are designed to last decades, and an information panel at the library explains what a swift is and what the boxes are for.
Swifts are on the Red List of Birds of Conservation Concern in recognition of the fact that populations across the UK have declined by 58% since 1995 and by 75% in Wales.
Swifts spend the winter in Africa and return to the UK in May to breed. Swifts nest almost exclusively in buildings, making use of holes to raise their young. However, with lots of old buildings being renovated to improve insulation or simply demolished, swifts are losing their nesting sites.
To establish the boxes, which were put in place a few weeks ago, the Countryside and Wildlife Team secured funding from the Welsh Government Local Places for Nature Fund. This fund aims to make local areas more nature-friendly and raise awareness of wildlife to residents.
Recording by members of the NPT Local Nature Partnership has revealed Pontardawe is a hotspot for sightings of swifts in the county.
Neath Port Talbot Council’s Cabinet Member for Nature, Tourism and Wellbeing, Cllr Cen Phillips, said: “Providing additional nest sites in this location could provide a vital opportunity to boost the swift population.
“Visitors to Pontardawe Library will also be able to enjoy seeing the swift boxes, hopefully the swifts investigating and nesting in the boxes and learn more about this declining bird.”
The library also has swift themed resources for children for those interested.
Swifts will return to the UK in May, look for nest sites and breed for the next few months, before migrating back to Africa in late August / September.
