Chimney Swifts

 
chimney swift on nest

Source: United States National Park Service

If you hear chirping inside your chimney, it may be a small, sooty brown bird called a chimney swift.  These cigar shaped birds used to nest in hollow trees, but as man has expanded into their environment, they now also nest in open masonry chimneys.  They are migratory, spending winters in South America.

The nesting season for swifts is approximately May through July.  They can lay more than one clutch of eggs in a season.  Each clutch is incubated for about 19-20 days; the hatched fledglings will leave the nest within a month.  Once the nestlings are loud enough for you to hear them in your chimney, they are probably only a couple of weeks from leaving the nest.

Enjoy their chirping!  Swifts primarily eat insects, such as mosquitoes, and a pair of swifts and their nestlings can eat thousands of biting pests every day.

Because they are migratory, chimney swifts are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.  This act is enforced by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which imposes stiff penalties (up to $15,000 fines and six months in prison, per bird) for attempting to “pursue, hunt, take, capture, kill, attempt to take, capture or kill, possess, offer for sale, sell, offer to barter, barter, offer to purchase, purchase, deliver for shipment, ship, export, import, cause to be shipped, exported or imported, deliver for transportation, transport or cause to be transported, carry or cause to be carried, or receive for shipment, transportation, carriage, or export, any migratory bird, any part, nest, or eggs of any such bird”.  This includes evicting nestlings from a chimney.

Basically, when we find chimney swifts in a chimney, we are required by law to wait until the nestlings have left the nest, at which point we can cap the chimney and sweep out any remaining bird debris.

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