About S6 Swifts

The story of S6 Swifts is the story of three Sheffield women who found eachother…and then found they’d accidentally started a swift group…

We met up to “chat about swifts”, which quickly became “Wouldn’t it be good if someone organised something to help swifts locally?” and then rapidly morphed into “Well, it may as well be us.”

Since then we’ve been learning by doing. We went from our first meeting, under a gazebo in Mel’s garden, to fitting our first 10 boxes just a few weeks later! Our thinking was that plenty of people are interested in wildlife, but that the long ladders and head for heights required to fit swift boxes up under eaves puts even the keenest people off, or at least means that fitting a nest box ends up sitting on a to do list for years.

We’re so proud of our local swift colonies and want to do something to help these amazing birds before they decline further

Lots of people don’t really notice our wonderful, joyful, screeching, soaring swifts. Many people don’t know the difference between a swift and a swallow. We want people to feel proud of “our swifts” and that, seemingly against all the odds, they choose to keep returning to our small corner of Sheffield each year. To soar and scream over the terraces of Hillsborough, to squeeze unnoticed under a wonky roof tile in Walkley.

We offer advice to anyone who wants to help swifts. This might include: