Press Releases - Nov/Dec 2005 - Item 2

No. 2005/11/34
17 November 2005

Encouragement for Swallow

Around 700 volunteers, from Shetland to the Channel Islands, spent the summer of 2004 watching 15,000 Swallows, as they swooped over farmland, hunting for food. Results in the November issue of BTO News provide a ‘good feeding guide’ for Swallows.

"The only way to understand why Swallows in some parts of the UK are doing well, whilst others are not, is to see how successfully they find food”, explained Dr Ian Henderson of the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), who has just analysed the results of observations made by BTO staff and volunteers at over 3,000 survey points.

A total of 15,166 Swallows unwittingly took part in the biggest Swallow survey ever seen in the UK. Observers watched these birds make 71,000 foraging passes, as they swooped past in search of food.

So what makes a good feeding area for Swallows?

· Swallows are most strongly associated with cattle, horses and sheep, in that order, presumably attracted to the flies and other insects that accompany farm animals.

· Swallows are most likely to feed in areas with a mix of arable farmland and grassland, preferably with more of the latter habitat.

· On arable land, Swallow’s benefit from a greater mix of crops, especially the addition of flowering crops, such as oil-seed rape.

· Swallows consistently feed along hedgerows containing mature trees. Mature trees provide shelter for flying insects, particularly in poor weather.

· Feeding Swallows least preferred large, open fields of barley and wheat.

Declines of Swallows have been noted in several areas of Britain over the course of the last thirty years, particularly in parts of eastern England and the south-west (see Notes for Editors). Increasingly polarised farming patterns, towards improved grassland in the south-west and arable farming in the east, probably explains many of these declines.

Summarising the results, Dr Henderson said: “It appears that the loss of hedgerows and mixed farming may have reduced the quality of farmland for Swallows, just as for many other bird species. New agri-environment measures, which include unsprayed field margins and summer fallows, should be good news for Swallows.”

Notes for Editors

1. Volunteers made two 10-min visits to four points around a 2-km x 2-km square, between June and August 2004, where they counted the number of Swallow feeding passes.

2. Swallows prefer to feed on relatively large insects. They can turn quickly and stop in mid-air as they try to catch their prey.

3. The Feeding Swallow Survey was funded from the BTO’s Swallow Appeal with much of the money coming from sales of two children’s books, Rusty Flies South and Rusty’s Return, which tell the story of Rusty the Swallow as he travels to South Africa and then sets up home back on Honeysuckle Farm in the following spring. See http://www.bto.org/appeals/swallow.htm.

4. During the 1960s and 1970s there was a decline in Swallow numbers in the south-west of Britain amounting to some 75%. Between 1994 and 2004, there has been a decline of 21% in numbers in eastern England (BTO/JNCC/RSPB Breeding Bird Survey).

5. For more information about Swallows see www.bto.org/birdfacts

6. Bird photographs are available to accompany articles. Contact for electronic versions.

7. The BTO has an ISDN line available for radio interviews.

For further information please contact:

Graham Appleton on 01842 750050 (during office hours) or email

Ian Henderson on 01842 750050 (during office hours)

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