There has been a misconception by some that the purpose of our project is to provide replacement housing for Chimney Swifts so that "we can get those noisy birds out of our chimney".  However, what swifts need is additional housing -- not replacement housing.  The most consistent findings to date indicate that chimneys continue to be the best location for Chimney Swift nesting.  Chimneys provide the best conditions to protect from overheating, direct sunlight penetration and protection from predators.  Even our best designs for Chimney Swift towers fall short of the success of common masonry chimneys.  So, don't build a tower and cap your chimney -- build a tower and uncap your chimney.  But remember to have your chimney cleaned every year in mid-March just before the swifts return.


Paul Kyle, Editor

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Vaux's Swifts Use Nest Boxes

by Evelyn L. Bull, Research Wildlife Biologist
Pacific Northwest Research Station, La Grande, OR

In 1995, we began an experiment to determine if Vaux's Swifts (Chaetura vauxii) would use nest boxes.  Over the last decade, the western spruce budworm has killed thousands of grand fir in eastern Oregon.  Grand fir is the tree species that Vaux's Swifts typically nest in because the older trees (usually larger than 24 inches in diameter at breast height) have extensive decay that leaves a hollow chamber inside the tree that the birds nest in.  They enter the tree either through a broken top or through a Pileated Woodpecker hole; pileateds roost in these hollow trees at night.  Because so many of the nest trees were killed by the spruce budworm, they would eventually fall and leave a void of nest trees.  We believed nest boxes might provide alternative nest sites for the swifts.

We put up 12 nest boxes in 1995.  The boxes were made from solid boards 1 x 12 inches, so the boxes were about a foot square, but  the depth varied.  We made boxes 4, 8, and 12 feet deep to determine how deep a nest box the swifts preferred.  The boxes were then put 35 feet above the ground in trees.

In the spring of 1998 we climbed the trees and checked the nest boxes for nest remains.  We found twigs from past swift nests in two 12-foot boxes, lichen nests from Flying Squirrels in three boxes, feathers from roosting Northern Flickers in ten boxes, and feathers from roosting Pileated Woodpeckers in three boxes.  This summer we watched the boxes and observed swifts nesting in a 12-foot and an 8-foot box.  We banded two adults at each of these two nests.  In August we checked these two boxes and found that the nests were already disintegrated but had been attached about 19 inches from the bottom of the box.  The amount of droppings and the lack of dead nestlings suggested that young fledged from both nests.

As a result of these findings, we have put up another 50 nest boxes (12-foot depth) in old-growth grand fir stands, in logged stands lacking nest trees, and in stands of ponderosa pine that would never have had nest trees.  We want to determine if we can entice swifts to use habitat that would normally not have had nest sites, as well as provide additional nest sites in habitat where they are currently nesting.  In many stands with severe tree mortality, the nest boxes will provide the only available nest sites for the next 100 to 200 years.
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Dr. Evelyn Bull is one of our first Research Associates, and was a recipient of a grant from the Nest Site Research Project in 1996.  Her results are very encouraging, and we look forward to additional reports in the future.

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