Retrofitted Swift boxes in a gable end

These are the neatest and most professional retrofitted internal Swift boxes we have seen.

The pictures below tell their own story, but first, in his own words:

Update 2016: Following one pair occupying a box in 2015, 2 pairs bred in 2016 as well as 2 more occupied boxes!

Michael Osborne

9 neat entrances in a gable end
There are more pictures on the Read more button below

We hired the equipment - a diamond drill and 117mm dry core. All the holes were drilled from inside to out. The breakout on the outer brick face is minimal if you back the drill pressure off when nearly through. Main thing to make sure is that the drill being used has a clutch and not to use the hammer action as it damages the diamond tips of the core.

The core has a pilot bit in the centre. It's best to start the drilling off with the pilot in place then remove it once the core is started, otherwise it slows drilling down.

The entrance plates are made from 12mm exterior cement board and cut using a tile cutter blade in a standard Jigsaw. The entrance holes were cut out by drilling through with a masonry bit big enough to get the Jigsaw in to then cut out the shape. To try and avoid the birds confusing entrances, I made some of the holes semi-circle shapes. They're all 29mm by 75mm. The runways inside the tubes are made from the same material as the entrances, glued into place using Sticks Like All Weather Adhesive. 

All of the entrances and runways were sealed with a brick sealant called Stormdry prior to painting. The tubes and entrance plate assemblies were then sealed into the wall using an exterior sealant.

The pipe used is a standard 110mm (external diameter) soil pipe, available at most DIY stores.

To match the brickwork I bought a number of Sandtex tester pots and mixed them in situ on the ladder to match the surrounding bricks - adding sand to get the correct texture.

The boxes are made from 12mm marine ply and are all 450mm x 310mm internally. The internal height is 200mm apart from a few boxes which needed to be reduced in order to fit them into the space. 

All of the boxes are wrapped in insulation to try and reduce heat transfer from the loft which gets hot during the summer. The angled brackets which the boxes are screwed to the wall with are available from B&Q. I've then sealed around any gaps between the box and the wall with a gap filler. The hinged backs have an acrylic viewing panel in them which have slideable covers on the outside - just in case the loft light is turned on accidentally!

Experimental Swift brick

by Dick

In publicising this idea, it is in the spirit of encouraging people to do experiments, rather than an idea that should be rolled out extensively, not yet anyway. The idea came out of the success of the air brick liner Swift bricks at St Neots. 

Swift brick with 2 fostered Swifts. Photo Judith Wakelam

The air brick liner Swift brick has internal dimensions: width 175mm x length 200 x height 100mm.

It thus occupies a space of length 1 brick and height 2 courses of brick. We wondered about a brick of height 1 brick - would this be acceptable to Swifts?

So, we built some prototypes out of 5mm thick fibre cement board. These have internal dimensions: width 150mm x length 225mm x height 75mm.

Swift exploring a Swift brick. Photo Clarke Brunt

In 2013, we installed 6 of these on 3 houses, all of whom were playing attraction calls. We managed to get Swifts to enter 2 of the boxes at one site, and we had them clinging to the boxes at a second site.

For the experiments, we have not knocked bricks out of any walls yet, but we have installed them under eaves with a simple wooden harness.

The width of these boxes could extend across the cavity, which, in modern houses, may be as much as 100mm, allowing a box width of 200mm. Also the length could be extended to 1.5 bricks ~330mm long. This would fit well in a Flemish bond.

4 fostered Swift chicks in a Swift brick

If this idea works, it would be the easiest thing to retro-fit into a wall, and may provide least resistance in the housing trade to install many of them in new build. We feel it could be a game changer.

For anyone who would like to have a go at this, please get in touch.

Postscript 2016: 2 of the boxes on one house were occupied by Swifts! The other 4 boxes have been occupied by House Sparrows.

Internal boxes with entrances fashioned from an air brick liner

From many points of view, built in nest-boxes are to be preferred to those hung on the outside of a wall, particularly if placed high up in a gable end within a roof-space. The nestboxes are secure, out of the sun and rain, and they provide a minimum of visual impact to the building. Although very easy to incorporate while a building is being put up, it is also not that difficult to retrofit them, but it does require some level of building skill. We have documented 2 examples here and here. 

[Postscript July 2015: A pair has raised 2 chicks in the the right hand box. The pair in the external heat-proof box has again raised 2 chicks]

The original double-walled external nest box and entrances to 3 new internal nest boxes

Model 400 air brick liner 220 x 200 x 65mm

Here is another idea using entrances made out of an air brick liner - this time the model 400 on page 10 of this PDF. This air brick liner has a hole 30mm high.

We previously described the success of a single, heat-proof nest box on the outside of Judith Wakelam's bungalow in Worlington. As Judith wished to have more nest boxes we decided to build 3 nestboxes inside the attic, rather than add more outside on this south-facing gable end.

Entrance fabrication

The air brick was cut up with an angle grinder, then the 3 component pieces were glued together with a resin glue, suitable for stonework. One can get at least 4 entrances out of 1 air brick liner.

A hole was made in the outer wall by removing 50mm from each side of a vertical bond in the brickwork, leaving a space big enough for half a brick - the size of the entrance piece. This can be done very neatly by drilling a hole through the mortar then using a sabre saw to cut the brick.

Bill Murrells installing the entrances. Photo Judith Wakelam

In this case, the inner wall was made of concrete blocks, so we chose to replace the height of a block with a nest-box, abutted against the outer wall with a waterproof membrane between the box and the wall. Alternatively, we could have used a 100mm core drill to make a hole in the inner wall providing access through a 100mm pipe to the nest box which would be hung on the inner wall.

Bill finishing off the installation. Photo Judith Wakelam

The nest boxes were made of weather-proof plywood. The removable wooden backs conceal a perspex 'window' to provide direct viewing when any birds become established.

Each box was fitted with a soft fibre-board nest concave.



#inserts #Cambridge

Fulbourn internal nest box design

As the provision of internal nest boxes on the 'Swifts' estate in Fulbourn has proved so successful, we thought it worthwhile to document in detail how it was done. 

Assembly of cavity panel, entrance pipe and nest box

Exploded view

Holes with pipes inserted

Cavity Panels added

Internal box, made of marine plywood

Entrance pipes through insulation, before brickwork

We have described here the success of internal nest boxes in Fulbourn, which seem to be greatly preferred by Swifts to external nestboxes:

In 2013, Swifts used 66 out of 139 internal nest boxes, but only 9 out of 88 external nest boxes. The internal boxes were custom made out of marine plywood, the external boxes were Schwegler 1MF's

All of the internal boxes are placed in roof spaces (attics) above the level of any living quarters. So nice and high for the Swifts and out of the way of humans. Typically, entrances are provided through a gable end.

A 4 inch core drill was used to drill a hole through the brickwork and insulation. In these houses there was no cavity, just a thick layer of insulation inside the brickwork. A 4 inch pipe provided a route from the entrance cavity panel to the nest box.

Why is Fulbourn so successful?
70 pairs of Swifts were displaced from their old nest sites, so there was a large surplus of established birds looking for somewhere to breed. This shows that, contrary to advice sometimes given, it is well worth providing replacement nest sites, even if you cannot put them close to the old nesting places.

The difference between the internal and external nest boxes is that the entrances face in different directions - maybe it was easier for these birds, desperate to find somewhere to breed, to spot the horizontally-facing entrances of the internal boxes first.

Starlings occupied many of the Schwegler 1MF's, this could have deterred the Swifts from using these boxes.

Perhaps Swifts particularly like to have a certain distance between the entrance and the nesting place, provided by the 4 inch pipe.

There was a limited amount of attraction call playing, but in this case, it was probably a minor factor.

What might one do differently
It may be relevant to ask what one might do differently, not that it is necessary to do anything differently - as it works very well.

The inside of the pipe was roughened to give the Swifts a grip. It might be easier to use a small amount of cement mortar to give a rough flat path.

The entrance hole is placed in the centre of the box. Swifts may prefer it off centre, nearer one end.

The boxes are quite large, with a floor area 400-500mm x 140mm. 300-400mm x 175mm might be better proportioned.

The pictures, left, should be self explanatory - click any one to see enlarged versions of all of them.

Acknowlegement
Thanks are due to Rob Mungovan of South Cambs District Council who was the driving force behind this project and also for the use of his pictures.



#inserts

Retrofitted observation Swift boxes inside a gable end

Toby Wilson, of RSPB Scotland, has kindly sent in this story, with pictures, of a neat and practical way of incorporating Swift boxes in an attic behind a gable end. Similar nest boxes configured this way have been very successful in Fulbourn, Cambs.

A view from the outside

Following very helpful and much appreciated advice from Chris Mason and friends, in April 2013 my parents installed two Schwegler Swift Observation Boxes (See here) in the gable wall of their home in east Oxford. We thought it would be a good site as each year a screaming party of around twenty swifts gather above the house and fly along the road. 

Inside the roof space

Swifts have also been at least prospecting (too high and awkward to confirm) under the gable eaves in previous years (See Youtube ). My brother played attraction calls from the window in the gables during summer 2013 but the boxes do not appear to have been used. 

The upper box reveals a glass back

I am based in Glasgow, so I have not been able to monitor properly the use of the boxes to see whether any birds have been prospecting but I hope to spend more time there next summer and will also aim to rig up some speakers next to the boxes in the roof space

Installation diagram

Installation required drilling a ~100mm hole through the wall, to take the entrance pipe, then fitting a Schwegler face plate to the outside and bolting the box to the inside.

#inserts

Product Review - Bird Brick Houses Swift box

Written by Dick

We have been sent a sample of a new style of Swift box by Bird Brick Houses Ltd in Sussex. There are two approaches to providing nest boxes for Swifts, either add nest-boxes outside or build them into the fabric of the building. Either way, they need to be an attractive feature or well hidden.  The Bird Brick House product is effectively a bespoke solution that provides a built in nestbox that matches both the existing brickwork and the space available in the wall.

Assembled box

The BBH Swift box comes in 3 sections. The body of the box, occupied by Swifts, is made in 2 halves so that the width can be adjusted to fit the space available in the brickwork and cavity. This can be anything between 100mm, in which Swifts can breed successfully, and 150mm, which gives them plenty of space. The front section holds slices of brick, ~20mm thick, matching the brickwork of the wall.

Removable front

The removable front section is secured with 4 stainless steel bolts so, it is easily removed for clearing out the occasional House Sparrow or Great Tit nest outside the breeding season.

It is easy to incorporate this box in the top courses of brick in a newly built building, but also, it can be retrofitted into an already built wall.  There is no need to cut bricks, so the wall can be restored to its original appearance.

Body of box with front removed

The box material is extruded recycled plastic 3mm thick. The raised central section has a concave indentation and is roughened.

We think this is a well thought out product, providing good accommodation for Swifts which is easy for builders to incorporate.

The price quoted is £75 + vat + p&p.

For further details see:
http://birdbrickhouses.co.uk/

Example of 4 nest boxes retrofitted into a wall

St Andrew's Oakington

Written by Dick

We installed 8 nest boxes in 2 cabinets on the south side of the belfry in St Andrew's Oakington in 2008. As it is difficult getting access to mains power, we did not play attraction calls until 2011, where our Box of Swifts made this feasible. This resulted in a lot of Swift activity on many days near the nest-boxes, but no Swift succeeded in finding an entrance. We were hopeful that the birds from 2011 would persevere in 2012, but alas no success this year either. There are two pairs of Swifts nesting precariously in crevices on the sides of the louvres in the south and west sides.

St Andrew's should be a great success. Years ago it had a vibrant colony on the south side of the chancel, until roof repairs excluded them.

Fronts and backs of cabinets. The outsides are darkened 

rendering them virtually invisible. Entrance positions

are dictated by the stonework. The 3 chambers with nest

concaves on the west side did not have concaves on the 

south side, and vice versa.

Since the original cabinets, we have learned that Swifts' 1st choice is somewhere near the tops of the louvres, their second choice is somewhere near the bottom. Our original cabinets are in the middle.

So, with the permission of the PCC, we built 2 more cabinets for the tops of the louvres on the south and west sides. The triangular shape fitted the batons that support the bird-proof netting.

We debated whether to put 3 large boxes in each triangle or 6 smaller boxes. As the existing 2 pairs of Swifts nest in spaces very much smaller than this, we went for 6 boxes in each cabinet.

Boxes in the south side. Photo Bob Tonks

The floor area of each chamber is a minimum of 220mm wide by 275mm deep. The headroom in each chamber is 100mm.

Holes were made in the netting by cutting the sides and top of a rectangle with wire cutters, then bending the wire inwards and downwards. This conveniently blocks any small gaps below the entrance.

Boxes in the west side. Photo Bob Tonks

Nest concaves were placed in half of the boxes, in the hope that we can collect more data on Swifts' preference for this facility.

We did not provide inspection doors, as we think that, should we wish to inspect the boxes before the end of the breeding season, we can do that by removing the whole back, then moving it up, left and right to take a peep at the contents.

We intend to resume playing attraction calls in 2013.

St Andrew's, Oakington: Swifts once nested under the eaves on the south side of the chancel
 © Copyright John Sutton and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

The Air Brick Liner Swift Brick

In ancient times, Swifts nested wholly in natural places, such as holes in trees, sometimes made by woodpeckers, or in rock faces. Then a new source of nest sites appeared when we unintentionally provided spaces in our buildings, and doubtless the swift population greatly increased. Now that we are destroying nest places with roof renovations and roof insulation, the time has come to deliberately incorporate nest places in new buildings. We previously reported on the rescue of a Swift colony in St Neots, using air brick liners for swift bricks. The success of this has lead us to refine our ideas and report fully on how such air bricks may be deployed more widely.

Contributed by Bill Murrells & Dick Newell

Swift brick. [since this picture was taken, we now

use 'undercloak' for the ends, a low cost, strong, asbestos

substitute].

The picture at left shows A swift brick made from a standard, clay air brick liner of length 200mm. The internal floor area is 200mm x 175mm, diagonal 266mm), and the internal height is 100mm. This is big enough for any swift to turn around, without bending its wings and it is large enough for a young swift to exercise. The outside dimensions of this brick are 200mm (plus 2 slates) x 215mm x 140mm.

At least 2 of these were occupied at St Neots in 2012, so they are accepted by swifts.

The air brick is the model 401 (see PDF on page 9). The ends, made of slate, or under cloak, are glued on with resinous glue. The air brick is available in any length up to 300mm. Although swifts will use an air brick 200mm long, They may prefer something longer, so that they can get further from the entrance.  From a swift's point of view, a brick 300mm long would be luxurious, 225mm (the length of a standard brick) could be a good length to go for. The computer models below illustrate air bricks in 2 situations. This brick occupies the space of 1 house brick horizontally and 2 courses of bricks vertically. Its internal floor area is 200mm x 175mm (diagonal 285mm),  height 100mm; the outside dimensions are 200mm (plus 2 slates) x 215mm x 140mm

Four SB-225's in a gable end

Two SB-225's under a soffit - from below

The ideal location for installing air bricks is as high as possible under the eaves or in a gable end. It is possible to hide much of the brick behind a barge board or within the eaves. They would also go well in the middle of a wall, but in such places where they could get wet, then a cavity tray might be needed (a piece of felt below and behind the swift brick)

Two SB-225's under a soffit - from above

The advantages of this swift brick are that it is made of approved building materials, it looks aesthetically pleasing, it is easy to make and easy to install, it is a good size for swifts and it is made of low cost, readily available materials; the basic air brick costs less than £10. It merely requires an angle grinder to fashion the entrance (a slot 65mm x 28mm), and some glue.

Thus we think that it should be acceptable to architects and builders, as well as being desirable for swifts.

Although the terracotta colour is acceptable in most situations (see examples below), the air brick can be painted with any exterior paint, such as Sandtex.



Examples:

6 of the 12 boxes (SB-200's) in the old St Neots factory site in Brook Street

At least 2 boxes were occupied in 2012, and 1 pair bred.

One of the 5 boxes occupied in 2013, chicks were known to be raised in at least 4 boxes
and Swifts were seen entering 9 different boxes.

2 air brick linersin a small development in Colville Rd, Cherry Hinton, Cambridge

Closeup of an installed air brick liner

More boxes under eaves

UPDATE July 2015 
An inspection of the boxes found that 2 were occupied by Swifts.

UPDATE 8th July 2012
A pair of Swifts has been seen entering and roosting in the box to the left of the drainpipe.

UPDATE 20th June 2012

This demonstrates that the Box of Swifts attraction call playing is working. This unfortunate prospecting swift has fallen into the drainpipe funnel. There was no way it was going to get out of here unaided. The bird flew off strongly the following morning. In hindsight, we should have spotted this hazard. The funnel is now covered.





Contributed by Dick
These tailor-made boxes were installed in Chippenham, Cambs at my son and daughter in law's house. This is another example of eaves with joists, this time supporting a fascia board.

2 single and 2 double boxes. The Box of Swifts speaker is
installed on the double box next to the drainpipe

The gap between the fascia and the wall was 225mm, plenty wide enough to accommodate a Swift box. At the top of the wall there was a narrow ventilation grill, so the backs of the boxes do not extend to the top to avoid blocking the ventilation. A single box was placed between two joists 460mm apart, but most gaps between joists were 550mm.

4 boxes (6 nesting places) before installation

So for three of these 550mm gaps, we built two double boxes and a long single box. The dimensions of the double box nesting places were 255mm x 210mm, which should be big enough. The separating wall in the double boxes does not extend to the top, allowing light from one entrance to shine through to the opposite box.

All of the boxes were installed by removing the bottom, a single screw into each adjacent joist, then replacing the bottom.

The installation was finished off with a Box of Swifts.

Fulbourn update

Written by Dick Newell, photographs by Rob Mungovan

Rob Mungovan, centre in yellow, with the volunteer team

Fulbourn is a great example of a district council, working together with local people to mitigate the consequences of the destruction of a large colony of ~70 pairs of Swifts in prefabricated buildings from that rich architectural period of the 1960's (see buildings in background in first picture).

John Willis, centre in blue, organises the team

This has been a well planned project to make sure that new nesting sites are available in the new housing estate nearby (called "The Swifts") before the old buildings were pulled down. A number of styles of nest-boxes have been installed in the new housing estate, including built in boxes, as well as Schwegler 1MF swift boxes.

The Swifts are steadily occupying the new boxes, but so are the Starlings, especially in the Schwegler boxes, as their entrances are larger than is necessary for Swifts.

Front louvres with and without Polyfilla

We earlier reported on ideas to restrict the entrance size to exclude Starlings, here we can report on the implementation of that plan with local enthusiasts organised by John Willis, overseen by the South Cambs District Council Ecology Officer, Rob Mungovan.

The idea is a simple one, reduce the entrance size by using Polyfilla.

Unmodified entrance

Entrance reduced to 30mm

Swift Boxes at St John's College, Cambridge

Written by Dick Newell
Rowena Baxter regularly waits for the Park and Ride bus outside St John's College, Cambridge, and being an observant birder, she could not fail to notice the decline in Swifts in recent years, so she arranged for us to explore opportunities for Swift nest-boxes somewhere on the site together with Dr R. E. McConnel, a college fellow, and Steve Beeby, Superintendent of Buildings.
To quote from their website: "St John's College is one of the oldest and largest colleges in Cambridge. Former students include famous business and political leaders, as well as renowned scientists and artists. It's an inspiring place to study, or even just to visit."
For a college that was founded in 1511, one couldn't exactly go hanging Schwegler swift boxes around the buildings, so we cast our sights on the chapel tower.

St John's College Chapel

8 nest-boxes in 4 cabinets

By the standards of any normal church, this is an enormous tower, with huge louvres, but the space where one might expect bells is empty, a disused dusty cavern with openings to the outside world. The top of the tower looks down on the Round Church and gives an evocative view of Kings College Chapel to the south.

There are 3 sets of louvres on each of the 4 sides of the tower, with openings behind 'bird proof' mesh at floor level. It was decided to place 4 2-box cabinets behind the openings on the west side.

Permission was granted by the dons and other college authorities.

Bob Tonks designed, built and installed the boxes. A Box of Swifts, driving two speakers, is barely audible at ground level [upgraded to a Cheng Sheng player amplifier in 2013]. Should we succeed in attracting Swifts into these boxes, there is plenty of opportunity for expansion.

One nest-box cabinet with, with back removed, showing concave
nest platforms feathered by the pupils of Fulbourn primary school.

A swift's eye view of The Round Church
taken from the tower of St John's Chapel

More on the old St Neots factory site

2 white faces peer out. One could be a chick.

UPDATE 20th July 2012: We went to St Neots to see progress. From the scaffolding, we found feathers in boxes 11 & 12, a completed nest in 10 and we saw a swift disappear into box 8. A short while later, 2 white faces appeared at the entrance. Yeessss!!
Further, we found four occupied boxes out of the 12 in the church, up from 2 last year.

UPDATE 24th May: Marcus de Figueiredo reports seeing 2, possibly 3 pairs of Swifts using the new nest sites. The netting has been removed and although the scaffold poles are still in the way, the Swifts ignore them.

Written by Dick
We can report good progress in the story of the old Brook Street factory site Swift colony. After a shaky start we have excellent cooperation with Callisto Homes who have made great efforts to achieve a satisfactory solution to the loss of 6 Swift nest sites.

Bill Murrells assessing the space utilised by Swifts
before the roof was removed. Photo Alison Pearson

First, let's examine where the Swifts nested under the asbestos roof. As is normal, they were nesting on top of the wall under a single layer of asbestos. One can only imagine the temperatures reached in the heat of the mid-day sun, and, not surprisingly, when Bill Murrells examined the nest sites, he found a number of dessicated Swift corpses. This place was far less than ideal for nesting Swifts.

A dessicated Swift which probably died from heat exhaustion
Photo Alison Pearson

One can only wonder at the success rate of Swifts nesting in such a difficult situation.

It was refreshing that the project manager, Marcus de Figueiredo and the bricklayers on site, quickly got on board with what needed to be done to try to rescue, and improve, this well known Swift colony.

As previously reported, Bill came up with the great idea of using air brick liners, customised using an angle grinder to turn them into attractive, effective Swift bricks

Swift bricks in position. Photo Marcus de Figueiredo

Although the bricklayers were unable to use the total length of the bricks supplied, we have ended up with 12 nest places, roughly 210 x 175mm in floor area, with an entrance 75mm x 28mm. We know that Swifts can breed in spaces smaller than this, so it will be interesting to see the uptake in these new nesting places.

Photo Marcus de Figueiredo

It now remains to place a barge board that covers most of the front of the nest-boxes, insulating them from the sun.

There are now 12 quality nesting sites, where before, there were 6 less than ideal nest sites. What started off as a potential disaster for the Swifts of St Neots, over the period of a week, is ending as a triumph for cooperation, for the Swifts, and for the people of St Neots who can continue to enjoy this well known colony.

Postscript:
On 11th May, we (Dick and Bill, with David Gill) were escorted by bricklayer, Lee, to see the finished boxes with the barge board in place.

Left side entrances partially or wholly behind the barge board

At first we were dismayed, because, on the left side, some of the entrances were behind the barge board. However, on closer inspection, we found there is a 50mm gap between the barge board and the wall, leaving plenty of space for a swift to crawl up into the entrances.

Right side entrances clear of barge board

Left side entrance

Right side entrance

Bill Murrells with bricklayer Lee

The swifts are quite likely to be attracted to this gap, as it is exactly the kind of place they would seek nest sites.
With the barge board in place, the boxes are well sheltered from the sun, so there should be no problems with temperature on this south-facing aspect.