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BTO Blueline
COMMON SWIFT
Apus apus
 Swift © Chris Mead
 

• Population
  changes

• Productivity
  trends

• Additional
  information
Conservation listings
Europe: no SPEC category (favourable conservation status in Europe, not concentrated in Europe)
UK: green
Long-term trend
UK: unknown
UK population size
85,000 pairs in 1990 (1988–91 Atlas: APEP06); 20,000–100,000 pairs in 2000 (BiE04)
Status summary
Swifts were not monitored before the inception of the BBS. Monitoring is complicated by the difficulty of finding occupied nests, by the weather-dependent and sometimes extraordinary distances from the nest at which adults may forage, and by the variable midsummer influx of non-breeding individuals. Since Swifts do not normally begin breeding until they are four years old, non-breeding numbers can at times be substantial. BBS results so far suggest decline in England and Scotland, and possibly in Wales, but, because there are wide fluctuations, a long time-series may be needed before trends can be estimated with confidence. Concern for Swifts, a small organisation of private individuals, is trying to promote the deliberate provision of nesting sites for this species, as so many suitable cavities are being lost to re-development. It is also gathering information on populations to assess whether the species should be listed as of conservation concern.
 

Population changes
BBS UK graph
 
Table of population changes for Swift

Source Period
(yrs)		 Years Plots
(n)		 Change
(%)		 Lower
limit		 Upper
limit		 Alert Comment
BBS UK 10 1995-2005 926 -20 -29 -12    
  5 2000-2005 984 -8 -19 3    
BBS England 10 1995-2005 796 -22 -30 -14    
  5 2000-2005 836 -12 -24 -3    
BBS Scotland 10 1995-2005 45 -38 -55 -18 >25  
  5 2000-2005 47 2 -17 24    
BBS Wales 10 1995-2005 64 -22 -42 14    
  5 2000-2005 74 -18 -36 1    

BBS acknowledgement
 
BBS England graph
BBS Scotland graph
BBS Wales graph
 

Productivity trends
Productivity information is not currently available for this species
 

Additional information
BTO blue divider
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This report should be cited as:
Baillie, S.R., Marchant, J.H., Crick, H.Q.P., Noble, D.G., Balmer, D.E., Barimore, C., Coombes, R.H.,
Downie, I.S., Freeman, S.N., Joys, A.C., Leech, D.I., Raven, M.J., Robinson, R.A. & Thewlis, R.M. (2007)
Breeding Birds in the Wider Countryside: their conservation status 2007.
BTO Research Report No. 487. BTO, Thetford. (http://www.bto.org/birdtrends)

Pages maintained by Susan Waghorn and Iain Downie: Last updated 3 January, 2008