16th June
Pete Hughes
BIRD lovers are being encouraged
to take steps to try and boost Oxford’s ailing swift population.
The bird – known as a ‘master of
the sky’ – has seen numbers decline by more than half between 1995 and 2015.
For swift awareness week, which
starts today, the RSPB is urging residents to help boost the food and nesting
options available for the bird in a bid to make the city more habitable.
Emily Seccombe, Oxford Swift City
project officer, said people can help by putting up a nestbox or growing
wildflowers to attract flying insects - a swift’s main source of food.
She added: “Swifts are urban
nesting birds; they make their nests in the cracks and crevices under tiles or
in stonework.
“A major cause of swifts’ decline
is the loss of nest spaces in buildings, due to demolition or renovation of old
buildings.
“Modern buildings often lack the
spaces that swifts need.”
No comments:
Post a Comment