LISTEN carefully to the above video and you will be able to hear the shrill cries of swifts in the background as they return from the winter in Africa to nest in the roof of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.
Lucy Hyde, RSPB project officer, could not have asked for a more perfect soundtrack as she launches a two-year project to try and persuade hundreds of people across Oxfordshire to do more to help these vulnerable birds.
Ms Hyde is this weekend launching Oxford Swift City - an ambitious scheme which will attempt to create 300 new swift nesting sites on new and existing buildings across Oxford.
She and her team will also be trying to encourage residents to do whatever they can to help these beautiful birds, whether by installing a £30 swift nest box on the side of their own home or just planting some wild flowers which encourage the insects that swifts love to feed on.
The swift city team are officially launching their project with a stand in front of the natural history museum today and tomorrow, handing out information and trying to persuade people to make a 'swift pledge' to do what they can to help.
The timing could not be more perfect: the swifts which nest in the museum eaves only arrived back from their winter migration to Africa yesterday.
The iconic migrating bird, which can fly 560 miles a day and lands only to breed, nests almost exclusively in urban areas.
Ms Hyde explained: "What we're trying to do is engage the community, educate them about swifts and try to inspire them to take action to help swifts.
"They have declined about 47 per cent in the past 20 years and they're only in England for about three months so we really want to try to give them a home by improving the number of nesting opporunities they have, because we think that's one of the main reasons they have declined in numbers because they have fewer spaces to nest.
"One of the ways you can help it's really easy is to purchase a nest box: there are lots of different designs and different types that you can buy - online is really easy, and the one we've got here you can buy from the RSPB shop online, it's specifically for swifts, it's got a small entrance hole you just need to install it up underneath your eaves ideally in a two-storey house and that will give swifts an opportunity to come and nest."
The project has been funded by an £83,700 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
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