The Chimney Swifts of St. Sebastians

One of the unexpected delights of living downtown is the return, each summer, of a colony of chimney swifts which roosts in the tall chimney of St. Sebastian's Church. It is not the only colony downtown, as there is another which roosts in a chimney at the old high school on the corner of Pearl and Court Streets.

Chimney swifts (Chaetura pelagica) are migratory birds which winter in Peru, and migrate to North America in the summer. Their ancient roosting sites were hollow trees and rock structures, but as these disappeared with development, they have adapted to tall chimneys. As some of these chimneys disappear, or are capped, roosts for these birds are threatened. This is of some concern since the birds are ferocious flying bug eaters, consuming a third of their body weight in an evening of hunting. They are unable to stand on the ground, because their legs are suited to cling to vertical surfaces with sharp claws. They build crescent-shaped nests, that look a bit like soap dishes, to hold eggs, and eventually young swifts. These nests, made with sticky saliva and twigs, are the traditional ingredients for the Chinese dish, bird's nest soup.

In my observation the noisy chirps of these swifts is noticed first in May, when, in the evening they begin to gather and circle the chimney at St. Sebastians in an aerial dance that lasts about twenty minutes. As the birds gather at dusk, they begin to circle the chimney in a wide arc, swooping and chirping noisily as the size of the aerial flock grows to about a hundred birds. Then, as if on some signal, the birds begin to drop precipitously, one after another, into the chimney, until after only a few minutes the sky is empty of the birds.

It's never failed to amaze visitors to the house when I've pulled them out onto the porch at dusk to observe the flight of the swifts, and their amazing disappearing act. The swooping, chirping and the final dive into the chimney is always a spectacular sight.

Last night, the nightly flight was made even more dramatic when a thunderstorm to the north served as backdrop, and lightshow for the roosting activity.

I notice that as the summer wanes, so does the number of swifts which gather in the evening. You can observe the activity easily from the parking lot of the church, or from Broad Street, near the corner of Washington. The gathering occurs just after the sun has gone down, these days, between 8:30 and 9:00 pm.