If there was need of any hard fact that Maltese hunters in spring were indiscriminate and ruthless in their choice of birds, the sudden colonisation of buildings such as the Portomaso tower and the Mellieha Church by the world’s fastest birds, is there for all to see.
The screeching of dozens of swifts wheeling high over Portomaso and other places in Malta and Gozo is not only confirmation that conservation measures are bearing fruit. It also gives proof that the swift is another new nesting bird for the Maltese islands.
With their wonderfully wild screaming their whereabouts are easily noted but sometimes they are hardly visible to birders and onlookers.
Swifts can spend long periods sitting on nests close together, or on top of each other with bodies hunched and feathers ruffled.
A spectacular form of aerial display is when individual swifts fly up to the nest entrance holes of other swifts and brush or bang against them – apparently with their wings – before continuing their flight.
Single swifts may fly up in this way to a number of nests in succession. This type of display is restricted to fine weather with little or no wind and is particularly noticeable on the first fine day after a spell of bad weather. They also use the same nest year after year, merely adding fresh material.
Swifts were first noted nesting some two years ago at the Portomaso tower. They were also noted congregating around the MediaToday office and then nesting in the Hilton hotel environs. Since then small colonies have increased and countless breeding records have been recorded by BirdLife ornithologists across Malta.
In former years, swifts were shot at indiscriminately by hunters who would shoot them down to train their hunting dogs, or simply to take pot-shots out of sheer frustration.
Birders have even noted another species of swift: the pallid swift possibly nesting in Malta, this time along the Gozitan coast.
Common swifts nest across Europe and Africa, and in all the Mediterranean islands. Malta was the only island not to have any nesting swifts.
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