“One of the things the university is doing to try to help recover the swift population is to put nest boxes on buildings around the university to compensate for the fact that natural nest sites have disappeared as a result of new modern buildings,” Rands said.
Swift boxes were placed on the tower of the David Attenborough Building in the city in 2020 and the first pair nested and reared two chicks in 2021.
It now has 20 swift nest boxes, with 24 nesting chambers and recently added a live camera feed, external enabling people to look inside some of the nests.
Several other college buildings also have boxes and at the North-West Cambridge development at Eddington, more than 200 bird boxes have been installed and a number of those are for swifts.
Rands added: “It is fantastic to see them back here now, above Darwin College.
“I’m particularly pleased this year, because three years ago we put some nest boxes up and we are playing tapes of the calls, which we know attracts the birds in, but it usually takes a year or two for them to establish a colony.”
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