nest box

The swift is a medium-sized bird, and a superb flier. It can sleep while on the wing! It's a plain, sooty brown, but in flight it appears black. The Swift can be seen in Summer with its long, scythe-like wings and a short, forked tail, right across the UK. Often they fly very high. They never perch on wires like other birds. Occasionally you can see flocks of them dashing madly at high speed doing aerobatics, sometimes around rooftops and houses, often flying low.

By the end of Summer, they are gone, making their way back to Africa

This nesting box is designed to attract Swifts. Fixed under the eves of the house where the Swifts prefer to be, they should soon start to nest in it.

In the plans ( free off the internet) they recommended that no nails or screws were used, so I glued it all together with strong wood glue. The wood I used was pine.

The front, back and the bottom are all nineteen and a half inches by eight inches. The sides are eight inches square. The top overhangs the front by an inch and the sides overhang by half an inch. The opening for the birds' entry is 3 inches by 2 inches, with the bottom of the opening an inch up from the base.

As there were no screws or nails, I re-inforced the corners by putting in a corner post six inches long by an inch square. Standing upright in the corners these posts give it rigidity and strength.

I used clamps to hold the wood tightly while the glue was drying overnight.

Once the box was complete, I cut strips of half inch right-angled trim and stuck them on the edges. The next job was to seal all the joins with white mastic to weatherproof it. A final rub down with sandpaper got it ready for a coat of wood preservative, before mounting it under the eves for the Swifts to nest in.