Skip to main content
Swifts delayed by cold and wet springs face mounting problems as the climate changes
How is this much-loved migratory bird species faring as rising temperatures change when seasons arrive, asks ALEXANDER C LEES
A swift in flight [Kentish Plumber / Creative Commons]

THE weather is warmer and the nights are lighter. What are those black, curved silhouettes looping in the sky?

Assuming you are looking at birds and not attending the World Boomerang Championships, those shapes will likely be Britain’s only breeding member of the Apodiformes (a grouping that includes the hummingbirds): the common swift (Apus apus), harbinger of summer.

Swifts getting swifter

Tailored swift bricks

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
PS
Books / 29 January 2026
29 January 2026

JULIA TOPPIN recommends Patti Smith’s eloquent memoir that wrestles with the beauty and sorrow of a lifetime

FRESH THINKING NEEDED: Brazilian firefighters walk outside the venue for the Cop30 UN Climate Summit, in Belem, Brazil
Features / 11 November 2025
11 November 2025

Reaching co-operation is supposed to be the beginning, not the end, of global climate governance, argues LISA VANHALA

Beer Street and Gin Lane, 1759 versions of Hogarth contrasting visions / Pic: Public domain
History / 12 September 2025
12 September 2025

Gin Lane by William Hogarth is a critique of 18th-century London’s growing funeral trade, posits DAN O’BRIEN

gray
Exhibition review / 8 July 2025
8 July 2025

BLANE SAVAGE recommends the display of nine previously unseen works by the Glaswegian artist, novelist and playwright