A successful Polish Swift tower design

Although many Swift towers have been erected, few have more than a pair or 2 of Swifts. We were therefore impressed by this design, the "Jerzykowniki” tower, which has been erected in 13 locations in Poland, 5 of which have acquired new occupants in the first year or two.

This story was sent to us by Katarzyna (Kasia) Szczypa

The tower “Jerzykowniki”
Lidzbark Warmiński (Warmia-Masuria region)

Following the erection of a stork platform, which, not unexpectedly, had failed to attract any storks to central Warsaw, the Stork Nature Society decided instead to design a tower suitable for Swifts, House Sparrows, Starlings and Tits.

All of the photos in this post are taken by Adam Tarłowski (ornithologist and designer of the tower from ussuri.pl), and Mariusz Grzeniewski (ornithologist from apusmg.pl) who have been protecting Swifts for 10 years.

A total of 13 “Jerzykowniki” Swifts towers have been installed since 2014 in Poland. Seven towers in Warsaw and six in other locations were set up in areas such as parks and among blocks of flats. Mariusz and Adam together with the Stork Nature Society control 11 of them.

The tower “Jerzykowniki”
in Warsaw (Bielany district)

Successful breeding pairs were found in 5 towers. One of them, 2 years after installation, had 4 breeding pairs in 2016 and 6 pairs in 2017. This was achieved without playing attraction calls!

The remaining 4 towers had one breeding pair each in 2016. The tower is not only effective, it is also an attractive design.

Each tower has 24 nest chambers arranged in a hexagonal structure with 6 chambers on 4 levels. Various hole shapes and sizes are included ranging from sizes suitable for tits to sparrows and starlings. A simple narrow door on each of the 6 sections allows for inspection and maintenance.

The drawing below, by Adam Tarłowski, gives indications of overall dimensions.

Footnote: Jerzykowo is a Polish town.

An adult Swift and 2 Swift chicks on top of a House Sparrows nest

A Swift tower at The Avenue Washlands

Back in 2011, we posted an idea for a Swift tower, based upon four 4-box cabinets, so 16 nest chambers. Since then, we have installed a fair number of 4-box cabinets, many of which have between 1 and 4 pairs of Swifts in them, but we never built the tower. Now, volunteers from the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust have extended the concept and executed an excellent example with 24 nesting chambers.

The Avenue Washlands is a Derbyshire Wildlife Trust wetland reserve consisting of reedbed, marsh, ponds and grassland in the valley of the River Rother, near Chesterfield. Along with the installation of pole-mounted Barn Owl boxes, they have now successfully installed a pole-mounted Swift Tower.

The project was funded and built by members of the Chesterfield & NE Derbyshire Local Group of Derbyshire Wildlife Trust. For the installation they were helped by the reserve’s Sunday work party volunteers.

The body of the boxes is made of pressure-treated timber. The roof and backs are made from Tricoya which claims to have an exterior life of 50 years! The roof has a ridge made from guttering.

The pole was donated and erected by Western Power. It is the most impressive pole that we have seen in terms of its size and rigidity, and gives a sense of proportion to the whole structure.

A solar panel driven attraction call system will be installed ready for the 2017 season.

We thank Brian Goodwin and Nick Brown for sending us this story and the pictures.

The tower is assembled from 2 each of these components

A test assembly on the ground.

Assembly in progress by reserve volunteers

A great-looking end result

New Swift tower in Poland

We have been sent pictures of an innovative Swift Tower in Poland designed by Warsaw architect Marcin Grabarczyk, in one of Warsaw's most beautiful parks situated near the Vistula River: Kamionkowskie Błonia Elekcyjne Park. Structural engineering was by Krzysztof Drzazga.

These towers are the result of a design competition organised by STOP, the Warsaw Society for the Protection of Birds on behalf of the City of Warsaw in 2012. The project was completed in January 2016. Two steel towers, 7.94 metres high, each contain 32 nest boxes on the north and east facing sides, with solar panels for attraction calls on the sunny side. The nest boxes are made of wood impregnated with linseed oil.

The plan is to build more towers in Warsaw,  as, in many other places, Swifts are losing their nest sites due to building renovations and insulation.

All of the pictures below are by Marcin Grabarczyk (click on them to enlarge)

The towers on a cold winter's day with the education board beneath

The towers stand at the top of a slope leading down to the water

Solar panels on the backs of the towers

Closer view showing circular entrances

Vine House Farm wildlife towers

As a result of being invited to give a talk to the South Holland Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, we had the pleasure of staying with Nicholas & Ann Watts at Vine House Farm, where, on a tour of the farm, I was shown a number of interesting towers, built for Barn Owls, Kestrels, Tree Sparrows and other species, which struck me as being a very nice model for a Swift Tower.

by Dick

Vine House Farm is an exemplary farm for wildlife conservation. Nicholas was awarded an MBE in 2006 and he won the RSPB 'Nature of Farming' award in 2013 (see here) and just recently, the Champion Sustainable Farming Award. The keys to success at Vine House Farm are many innovative ideas for providing habitat, including creation of ponds and reservoirs, hedges in parallel rows bordering meadows and other uncultivated plant life; provision of bird food and food crops; organic cultivation; and large numbers of nest boxes for Tree Sparrows, Barn Owls and Kestrels.

The farm is a profitable going concern of about 2500 acres, much of it used for growing bird food sold to feed garden birds.

You can read about Nicholas and the farm by googling e.g. here and here

Hexagonal tower with entrances for Barn Owls, Kestrels and Tree Sparrows

Square Tower with entrances for
Tree Sparrows, Barn Owls and Kestrels

One bird that is not nesting on the farm is the Swift, but what the farm does have is 6 brick-built towers which, to my eye, are a very good model for what an effective Swift Tower could be, so we thought it worth including some pictures here, in the hope of giving people ideas.

The hexagonal tower above has entrances under the eaves for Tree Sparrows and other cavity nesters, such as tits. There are also more Tree Sparrow nest boxes in the lower half. Larger entrances lead to accommodation for Barn Owls and Kestrels.

One of the square towers, left has provided accommodation for 6 species, including Stock Dove, Jackdaw and Mallard.

These towers were built using reclaimed bricks and local manpower for the construction. Such a tower could be built for something like £3000.

At 4 metres high at the eaves, these towers would require little in the way of modification for Swifts. Though not essential, slightly higher eaves, say an additional metre, could be an advantage.

The hexagonal structure, in particular, would make an attractive addition to any project, and could accommodate a substantial Swift colony.

A new swift tower in Amersfoort, The Netherlands

Swift towers are going up everywhere from Northern Ireland to Poland, and from England to Germany. The design, materials and methods for erection and maintenance are varied. Do they work? Occupancy rates continue to be modest, so all reports of Swifts using them for breeding are welcome. One thing for sure: they make a bold public statement. So, even if we don't get a return on our effort equivalent to the success of, say, nestboxes in buildings, they have the effect of raising public awareness of the importance of Swift conservation. The latest example of a Swift tower comes to us from the Netherlands. The design is ingenious, with a foldable mast/pole, allowing easy erection and dismantling for maintenance. We wish our Dutch colleagues luck with their venture

Contributed by Marjo van der Lelie

This new Swift tower in Amersfoort, the Netherlands, was designed and built by the Gierzwaluwwerkgroep Amersfoort (Swift Volunteer Group). It is made of red cedar. This type of wood was chosen for its durable and light qualities. The total weight of the tower is 33 kilograms.

On top of the 8 metre pole

The mast is similar to the one used in the Den helder tower. It is a standard product that is generally used for the lighting of sports fields. It is foldable and weighted so it can support the weight of the tower. The mast is 8 meters high. A platform made of galvanised steelplate is welded on top of the mast. The tower is fixed onto this platform with bolts.

Because the mast is foldable the tower is within easy reach for future work: the mast can be lowered using a winch.

Internal structure

The tower contains a small speaker. Electricity is supplied by a solar panel at the back of the speaker. Twice daily the sound of the swifts is played to entice the swifts. The roof of the structure is doubly insulated to prevent high temperatures in the nest boxes. The centre of the structure also contains a ventilation shaft for cooling the nests.

Ready for erection

The Swift Volunteer Group has christened the tower the ‘Hotel Apus’. This hotel has 15 spacious rooms. Every entrance is decorated with a wooden character. Together they make the word ‘GIERZWALUWHOTEL’, Dutch for ‘Swift Hotel’.

The tower was erected on Friday 26 June 2015. Marjo and Fred van der Lelie and Gijs Valkenhoef were the creative and organisational masterminds behind this swift tower. We hope the swifts will soon take up residence!

More information can be obtained from Marjo and Fred van der Lelie at cf.vanderlelie@hccnet.nl

And here is the movie!

Trumpington Swift Tower 2015 update

The tower is appreciated by the local
Wood Pigeons (click to enlarge)

The Trumpington Community Orchard Swift Tower was erected in October 2013 (see story), and its first full season was 2014. Although attraction calls were played throughout the season, as far as we know, no Swifts occupied any of the nest boxes. Now in 2015 we have our first breeding pair.

by Dick

This is great news and a well deserved reward for all of the effort put in by everyone involved. Screaming parties of up to 20 birds have been seen circling the tower.

A Swift was first seen entering the tower by a member of the public in late May, but it was not until 28th June, when 2 birds were seen entering the same nest box at dusk, that a pair was confirmed. Since then chicks have been heard cheeping when parents enter the nestbox, this is proof of breeding. Also occasional entries to other nest boxes have been witnessed.

This post also gives us an excuse to publish a picture of the tower (above), complete with its 20W solar panel, 2 bat boxes and squirrel barrier. The triangular cabinet, half way up, supports the solar panel and contains a 25 amp-hour golf cart battery, regulator, timer and Cheng Sheng player amplifier.

A parent leaving the box on the left

Cambridge Swift Tower - 2014 update

The breaking news is that, in the 4th summer of playing attraction calls, the Swifts have finally found the nest-boxes.

The tower was built in 2011 and we started playing calls with a customised bird scarer. Swifts showed some interest, but none were seen going very close to the nest-boxes.

We continued in 2012 with the same result and the bird scarer had become unreliable. We suspect the 5 watt solar panel was not quite up to the task, so we installed our own 'Box of Swifts' with a 1.5 inch car tweeter. The result was the same.

So, in 2013, after we had stumbled across the Cheng Sheng player amplifier, we installed a 20 watt solar panel to charge the battery which drove the player-amp and 2 tweeters. This resulted in Swifts actually making contact with the tower, clinging to the boxes, but still not finding any entrances. As a result of this, we made some more entrances where we thought the birds were trying to get in.

Solar panel facing south at 30°

In 2014, things seemed much the same, with Swifts regularly seen near the tower, but none making an entrance. At one point the battery went flat, so we resited the solar panel so that it was never in the shade and pointing in the optimal direction (south sloping 30°).

We seemed to be making little progress, so, in mid June, I popped an email to Brian Cahalane, an attraction call playing afficionado, to ask what would he do? His reply was to start playing calls at dawn and finish at dusk.

So the timer was reset to go from 5am to 12 noon and from 5pm to 10pm - this gave 12 hours of playing, we are not confident how much longer the solar panel and battery could go in a day. We had not previously played at the ends of the day for fear of disturbing local residents.

On 26th June, Bob Tonks was cycling past the tower, and he saw a Swift exiting one of the boxes (so thank you Brian and Bob). Since then we have seen Swifts entering or leaving 15 different boxes, 12 on the front and 3 on the back. Most observation has been done on the front. We saw no Swifts entering the new entrances that we had made on the back.

The only entrance in the top half of the back;
visited by swifts in 2014

We don't think there are 15 potential pairs for next year, as this was probably a small number of birds exploring their options.

One or 2 observations:

Although there are entrances at all levels on the front of the tower, Swifts only entered boxes in the top half. On the back, there is only 1 entrance in the top half, and Swifts used it. So, should we add more entrances in the top half on the back?

3 entrances with white canopies
were visited by swifts in 2014

Another thing, on the front, the paint had peeled away from the canopies above 3 entrances, turning them white. Swifts were seen entering these 3 boxes. The statistical probability of randomly choosing 3 specific boxes turns out to be about 2% - so should we paint a few more canopies white, especially in the lower half?

For the whole of July, if one loitered near the tower one would see anything between 3 and 10 Swifts in the near vicinity with some impressive screaming displays past the face of the tower. If this is a taste of what is to come, then it should be an impressive spectacle on summer evenings in the future.

Trumpington Community Orchard Swift Tower

Trumpington Community Orchard is an area of ~0.2 acres which is used to improve biodiversity and habitat for wildlife and plants, maintain a green space within the allotment envelope, grow local food, preserve heritage apple varieties and help combat climate change (we wish them luck with that!). And now they have a Swift Tower!

Final assembly on the ground
Photo Judith Wakelam

Whereas at Micklemere, we had a large tractor with a fork lift to erect the tower, at Trumpington we had to rely on a simple winch and a lot of brawn. The 8 metre pole probably weighed over 120kg and the boxes on top weighed 32kg. An A-frame was built out of scaffold poles to support the pole after each lift. The combination of a winch and a tug-of-war team pulled the tower up, while 2 teams on each side ensured that it did not veer off to the side.

The tower design is similar to the Micklemere Tower, but the entrances are slightly different. Both of these towers contain 11 nesting places, 7 in the front and 2 on each side. 

The assembled pole and nest-boxes, resting on an A-frame ready for erection. Photo Judith Wakelam

Almost ready for the final lift.
Photo Helen Hodgson

Final checks with a spirit level
Photo Helen Hodgson

All of the nest-boxes contain a nest-concave, coated with feathers by local children. A 1.5 inch tweeter was installed inside 2 of the nest-boxes, 1 in a front-facing box and a second one in a side-facing box. All that remains is to install a car battery, solar panel, SD card player and timer switch next May.

Trumpington is a village on the outskirts of Cambridge City. The inspiration for this project came from Susanna Colaco, chairman of the Orchard Committee. 

The team on the day included Guy Belcher, Clarke Brunt, Juliette Colaco, Rosa Colaco, Susanna Colaco, Helen Hodgson, Bruce Martin, Bill Murrells, Dick Newell, Vida Newell and Judith Wakelam as well as helpers from Cambridge City Council and Cambridge University. 

The front boxes are facing slightly north of west.
Photo Judith Wakelam

Modifications to Cambridge Swift Tower

This year, summer 2013, was the 3rd year of trying to entice Swifts to occupy the Cambridge Swift Tower. We upgraded the attraction call player to a higher quality, louder, system based on the Cheng Sheng player amplifier, powered by a 12 volt car battery charged with a 20 watt solar panel.

Written by Dick

In 2011 and 2012 we played attraction calls using a bird scarer programmed with Swift calls. The sound quality was not great and, in 2012 particularly, proved to be quite unreliable. However, in both years, we had Swifts circling the tower and sometimes approaching quite close to the boxes.

In 2013 we progressed to having Swifts making contact with the boxes, sometimes clinging on, but still failng to find the entrances. They seemed to be focused on trying to get into the horizontal gaps between the boxes, where there was no way in. 2 pairs of Starlings also occupied boxes in the tower, probably because the entrance sizes had crept above 30mm.

The back of the tower, showing some boxes
extending beyond the box below

Of the 221 boxes in the 'African Sun', 88 had entrances for Swifts and 10 had entrances for bats. There were also 36 unassigned boxes which extended beyond the box below. Thus we could add a whole new class of entrance in these boxes, by cutting a hole in the underside of the rear.

We have succeeded in making this enhancement in 9 boxes so far, increasing accommodation for Swifts to 97 boxes, without affecting the appearance of the tower at all. We hope these new entrances are similar to what Swifts are accustomed to in natural sites. A nest concave was placed in all of these new boxes.

You can see the current assignment of the nest boxes here.

The project team was:
Guy Belcher, Clarke Brunt, Alan Clarke, Bill Murrells, Dick Newell and Bob Tonks

Micklemere Nature Reserve Swift Tower

Swift towers are becoming more popular, even though, as a concept, it remains to be proved how effective they are. In order to keep costs down, the well proven design of a Barn Owl A-frame box was adapted to contain 11 nest-boxes, 7 entrances in the front and another 4 in the lower sides.

Final assembly of the tower on its pole

The Micklemere Swift tower is made of 15mm marine plywood, with an additional roof made of well-treated feather board. The double roof is designed to protect the nest-boxes from the weather, both rain and sun.

The box was mounted on a substantial 8 metre telegraph pole, 1.5 metres of which was in the ground.

Heavy lifting gear is used to lift the pole

Micklemere Nature Reserve is run by Suffolk Wildlife Trust which is one of a number of reserves managed by Will Cranstoun.

Will is blessed with a team of keen and competent volunteers who did a great job making the tower, and then helping to get it erected.


The trust already had a stock of suitable timber, as well as a spare telegraph pole, so this kept costs down.

The tower is up. Photo Judith Wakelam

Micklemere also has a number of generous donors and sponsors who provided funds, most of which was required for the sound system, which will need to be played in the coming years to attract Swifts into the boxes.

The sound system is based upon the Cheng Sheng player amplifier, 12 volt battery and solar panel charger. [described here and here].

It may be necessary to keep this going from May to July, through daylight hours, for a number of years to be sure of attracting Swifts into the tower.
This is a great example of a larger organisation, the Suffolk Wildlife Trust, getting behind the project, competent management on the ground, and a team of willing and able volunteers to make it happen.

Photo Judith Wakelam

Design model for Micklemere tower

First Swift Tower in the Netherlands

News of another Swift tower which has been erected in the Netherlands. Thanks to Astrid van den Broek for supplying information about the project, and to Fred van Vliet for permission to use his photographs.

[UPDATE July 2017 by Fred van Vliet 2017-07-15: The Den Helder Swift Tower was erected in July 2012 (see below), and its first full season was 2013. Attraction calls were played throughout the season, as far as we know, but no Swifts occupied any of the nest boxes. 21 of June 2014 5 Swifts hung on and entered different nest boxes and stayed the night. In 2015 and 2016 we only saw Swifts flying around the tower. The first of June 2017 we saw Swifts flying at the entrances. On 8 of July we saw 4 Swifts entering 2 entrance holes and calling from the swift boxes, so we have our first breeding pairs in 2017!]

16 nest-boxes on a 10 metre pole

The Swift tower is located in a city park in Den Helder, it is the first tower to be erected in the Netherlands. The tower contains 16 nest boxes. It is covered by a double, insulated roof to avoid heat problems in the boxes.

Distribution of the 16 nest cavities

The tower is located on top of a 10 metre high pole, which is collapsible: the top part of the pole can be folded down. This enables later adjustments to be made, and checking for occupancy after the breeding season. 

Solar panel for attraction calls

Several speakers, powered by solar panels, have been installed to play Swifts calls.

Local children helping to put up the tower

The tower was put up in July 2012 and attracted attention from swifts this first year. From November, Starlings have been using the boxes, which is a promising sign that when the Swifts return from late April 2013, they will start using the boxes.

The tower was designed by Fred van Vliet and built by the local birders' group (Vogelwerkgroep Den Helder). The tower was financed by the city council of Den Helder and Zeestad, and the association for durable energy, De Eendragt, in Den Helder.


Editorial comment:
Congratulations to all who contributed to this project. About the pole itself, one or two points occur to us. The pole is quite tall and slender, so it would be advisable to keep an eye on it during windy periods to see how stable it is. We note the hooligan barriers around the nearby trees, which  suggests that similar barriers might be needed around the pole. The access holes seem a tad large, certainly large enough for Starlings to gain access. The best advice is that the access hole of a Swift box should be no more than 30mm in height. Width is less critical, 65-75mm being adequate.

Warsaw Swift tower is up!

We previously reported on a design competition for a Swift tower in Warsaw, which was won by Menthol Architects. Since then we have been pleased to be asked for our opinions on detailed aspects of the implementation.

Rafal Pieszco writes: 

Click picture to enlarge

We have completed works on the construction and installation of the swift tower, therefore the first free-standing tower for swifts in Poland is up! On Monday, Dec. 17, at 12.00 in the park at Odkryta street (Warsaw, Białołeka), a press briefing will be held related to the completion of the investment.

The structure is 8 meters high and its shape refers to the silhouette of the flying swift. Why swifts arouse so much emotion? Well, they are irreplaceable, and above all, a natural weapon against the mosquitoes and biting flies. During the day, one swift can eat up to 20 thousand of these troublesome insects. 

For the complete story see here

Warsaw Swift Tower

These pictures are of a model of one of the winning entries in a competition to design a swift tower to be built in Warsaw, Poland.

Contributed by Rafal Pieszko, Menthol Architects

click on images to enlarge

One of the biggest problems for swifts in Poland is the loss of nesting sites. Modern construction is devoid of spaces where the birds can nest. Old buildings are renovated in a way that slots and holes where the birds nest are blocked. 

Unfortunately, the presence of birds in buildings during renovation causes intense conflicts between bird lovers and investors. However, people are beginning to realize that their presence is beneficial because they eat huge quantities of insects which are oppressive to humans. 

One of the best ways to protect these birds is to create safe nesting sites. Construction of small architectural forms would provide safe accommodation for the birds in a city environment. 

The dynamic silhouette of the swift during flight was the inspiration for the project. Long, narrow, pointed wings during flight and a slightly forked tail were captured in the proposed design, both in the front and side elevations. The form of the tower, reflecting the swift in flight can be easily recognised, and thus it promotes action to protect it.

The proposed location for the tower is in the park near the Vistula river in Warsaw. The tower is 7.82m height and has 90 nest boxes. The solar photovoltaic panels provide power for playing attraction calls, as well as 4 LED strip lights which will be lit at night time. This way the structure will function as a year round sculpture and it will attract more attention from people who will be aware of what is being done for swifts in Warsaw. 

We will reuse the ground from digging the foundations to form small landscape shapes covered with grass, as shown in the model.

For more details, see Menthol Architects

m e n t h o l   a r c h i t e c t s  -  natural  architecture  laboratory

Great Shelford Swift Belfry

This is another triumph for Rob Mungovan, ecology officer with South Cambridgeshire District Council. 

He has this to say: "Here is the recently restored school building in Great Shelford.  There were swifts nesting under part of the end wall. That aspect of the building could not be entirely retained but Hill Residential were happy to adapt the bell tower to provide for swifts and bats (as well as putting up other swift boxes).

The historic building people are happy with the look and the fact that we now have a restored landmark building, and I'm happy that we've provided for swifts and bats. This is a great outcome. We'll have to wait for next summer to see if it works."

There is a total of 20 nest-boxes for Swifts in the belfry, 12 in the lower level and 8 in the upper level.

A closer view showing some of the Swift entrances.






















Here are the Swift boxes at the top and bottom of the bell tower.

This is the partially completed bat roost.

A-frame Swift Tower

Contributed by Bob Tonks and Dick Newell

This is an idea borrowed from the Barn Owl A-frame, a very successful, well tried design for owls (Little, Tawny and Barn), Kestrel, Stock Dove, Jackdaw and even squirrels and cats.

It accommodates 6 pairs of Swifts. The whole thing can be assembled on the ground, then hoisted into position on a pole or wall. With the double roof it is well insulated from the sun, the front is easily removed for maintenance purposes.

Click for large picture

The front is an equilateral triangle with side 825mm. The depth of each nesting chamber is 425mm. The supporting strut below is as much there for aesthetic effect as it is to support the A-frame.

It is best not to orientate this box directly south, unless an extra thick front is provided. A smooth metal sleeve around the pole is also a good idea to deter rats and squirrels.



More pictures:

Idea for a Swift Tower

Contributed by Dick

This is an idea for a a swift tower which is intended to be relatively inexpensive and that hopefully can be erected by a group of competent amateurs without the use of cranes or cherry-pickers - but you are responsible for abiding by your local health and safety regulations. It is a modular design for ease of assembly. If you feel inspired to erect something like this, then please get in touch to discuss options.

Click for large picture

This is what it looks like from below. It contains 18 nesting places, 12 in the louvred cabinets and 6 in the roof. Access for maintenance to all nest-boxes can be achieved by removing any of the louvres or the gable ends. The materials are 12mm marine ply, 200mm x 25mm rough-sawn treated timber. 175mm wide feather-boarding, and 4 x 2 inch timbers. The dimensions quoted below are for guidance.


Assembly instructions:

The Cambridge Tower is up!

Photos by Bob Tonks:

Well, here it is in all its glory:

You can read all about it in the Cambridge News

and see this video about the tower by Cambridge Film Consortium and the the children.

And the back is just as interesting as the front:

Swift Tower latest

The boxes are being installed! Watch this space for more updates.

Cambridge Swift Tower - varnishing

Painting 221 boxes with 1 coat of stain and 3 coats of varnish is quite an undertaking. However, if you get enough volunteers on the job, it is surprising how quickly it gets done.

Here is a picture of Dick Newell with granddaughter Katie with paintbrush in hand: