Birds nesting in old homes under threat

The RSPB collected reports of more than 3,400 swift nesting sites, almost all of which were in buildings, and found more than three-quarters (77 per cent) were on houses.

Their strongholds are in the older parts of towns, cities and villages, with more than half the homes they nest in built before 1919 and a quarter dating from 1919 to 1944.

More than half the sites (52 per cent) had been known nesting places for swifts for more than 10 years, and around one in six was under threat, the RSPB said.

The charity believes that householders, business owners, builders and developers all have an important role to play in preserving sites for the bird, which has suffered declines of almost a third in the past decade.