Help the birds to settle?

[izentrop]

Above all, they need a room where they will not be disturbed, with the door always open high enough with joists on which they can fix their nest.
Avoid the shelves that allow cats to climb.

[dede2002]

You are sure that they are swifts and not swallows, Janic?

I asked myself the same thing, because it seems to me that the swifts cannot take off from the ground, they must be high to launch?

Regarding the swallows, in my grandmother's house in the Alps I have observed them since my childhood, their nests are under the rafters beyond the reach of cats. But lately I haven't seen them anymore! I will tell you later if they returned or not ...

[GuyGadebois]

You are sure that they are swifts and not swallows, Janic?

I asked myself the same thing, because it seems to me that the swifts cannot take off from the ground, they must be high to launch?

Indeed, it is very difficult for an adult swift in good health to take off again once on the ground. I saw one do it once but it had a strong headwind that allowed him to get up and start again. Otherwise you had to take them to the ground and "send them in the air", the height of a 10 year old child was sufficient (lived experience). Anecdotally, the swift is my favorite bird.
https://www.francetvinfo.fr/animaux/le- ... 93087.html

[Paul72]

that's probably why we see them a lot around church steeples ...

[izentrop]

Perhaps young nest tombs before their first flight, because in good health they have no trouble taking off.

[GuyGadebois]

Perhaps young nest tombs before their first flight, because in good health they have no trouble taking off.

It must be in good health and have intact plumage. And indeed, young people who miss their first flight are often screwed up.

[Ahmed]

Paul72, you write:

that's probably why we see them a lot around church steeples ...

Yes, normally these birds choose high places to nest and not inside human habitations ...

[GuyGadebois]

Perhaps young nest tombs before their first flight, because in good health they have no trouble taking off.

Unless also if they fall in medium or tall grass, because the drawing of La Hulotte (I was a subscriber for a time) is valid in an open environment, smooth and without obstacles. Which is rarely the case.

[Paul72]

and therefore, ultimately, nobody has an opinion on the relevance or not of installing manufactured gites?