The tower of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History has hosted a colony of common swifts since 1947, when zoologist David Lack, together with his wife Elizabeth, installed nest boxes behind the tower’s ventilators. Their work became one of the longest continuous studies of a single bird species anywhere in the world.
Swifts spend almost all of their lives airborne, feeding, drinking, and even sleeping in flight. They only land to breed, and the Oxford colony currently nests in around 40 boxes within the tower.
Each spring, the swifts return from their wintering grounds in sub-Saharan Africa to nest in the same tower, often in the same box, before departing again by late summer. Young swifts fledge and fly independently almost immediately, and may remain airborne for up to three years before returning to breed themselves.
The study continues today, contributing ongoing data on swift breeding behaviour, migration, and population trends. You can follow their journal here Swifts in the Tower
