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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. Their monitoring is complicated by the difficulty of finding occupied nests, by the weather-dependent and sometimes extraordinary distances from the nest at which breeding 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 suggest steep declines in England, Scotland and Wales but the relationship between BBS transect counts and nesting numbers is not properly understood so far. Concern for Swifts, a small private organisation, 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 try to determine whether the species warrants a conservation concern listing.
 

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 11 1995-2006 961 -26 -33 -18 >25  
  10 1996-2006 980 -23 -29 -15    
  5 2001-2006 1053 -13 -20 -3    
BBS England 11 1995-2006 825 -28 -36 -18 >25  
  10 1996-2006 840 -25 -32 -19 >25  
  5 2001-2006 893 -16 -24 -8    
BBS Scotland 11 1995-2006 46 -42 -59 -18 >25  
  10 1996-2006 48 -33 -53 -13 >25  
  5 2001-2006 54 -2 -20 20    
BBS Wales 11 1995-2006 66 -31 -48 2    
  10 1996-2006 68 -30 -48 -4 >25  
  5 2001-2006 77 -26 -41 -11 >25  

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., Leech, D.I., Joys, A.C., Noble, D.G.,
Barimore, C., Grantham, M.J., Risely, K. & Robinson, R.A. (2009).
Breeding Birds in the Wider Countryside: their conservation status 2008.
BTO Research Report No. 516. BTO, Thetford. (http://www.bto.org/birdtrends)

Pages maintained by Iain Downie, Mandy T Andrews and Laura Smith: Last updated 18.02.2009