Swift Nights Out are back in Birmingham! Join us downtown as we enjoy the second of three summer evenings with one of our favorite urban birds, the Chimney Swift (Chaetura pelagica).

After these aerial acrobats have fledged their young and cleared out their nests, the entire North American population makes its way south to winter along the remote headwaters of the Amazon River. On their way there, they congregate in huge roosting flocks with as many as two or three thousand birds sharing a single chimney—numbers that make for a tremendous spectacle when they all pour into the tiny opening at once.

After meeting for dinner and conversation at Birmingham’s Fish Market, we’ll walk, carpool, or bicycle to one of downtown’s active swift chimneys.  Together, we’ll wait for sunset (7:04 p.m.), watch the swifts work themselves up into their nightly “swiftnado,” and then count the number of individuals who enter the roost. Best of all, the data we produce will help researchers at the Chimney Swift Conservation Association (chimneyswifts.org) get a better sense of trends in eastern swift populations and the effects of climate change on these birds’ annual migratory cycle.