The councillor for the Environment and Territory, Miquel Mir, visited the facilities of the Consorci de Recuperació de Fauna (COFIB) in Santa Eugènia on Thursday, where more than 500 young swifts that have fallen out of the nest due to the heat have been brought in over the last few weeks.

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Since May, when this species migrated to the archipelago to breed, the COFIB has attended to 717 swifts, the majority of which, 578, are chicks. The bulk of admissions has taken place during the last few days, coinciding with the heat wave. During the week of 13 to 20 June alone, 379 swifts affected by the high temperatures arrived at COFIB.

The councillor thanked the staff in charge of managing the large number of birds arriving at the Fauna Recovery Centre and stressed the importance “of public involvement in the care of these birds, as more and more people are coming to COFIB to bring animals that are injured or, in this case, swifts that have suffered from heat stroke. In fact, the public’s help helped to save more than 200 chicks in 2019, also affected by the same problem”.

Swifts nest on roofs or in holes in façades, where the temperature can be higher than the ambient temperature. This is why, fleeing from the heat, they fly out of the nest in search of fresh air, when they do not yet know how to fly. Furthermore, if it were an adult bird, it would not be able to fly from the ground either, due to its morphology.

For all these reasons, COFIB staff ask for the cooperation of citizens and reminds them that if they find a swift, citizens can take it directly to COFIB (Monday to Sunday from 8 am to 9 pm) or, failing that, call the Centre’s emergency number (607 55 40 55 for Mallorca, 619 83 45 97 for Menorca and 615 77 64 98 for Eivissa and Formentera) to find out the nearest collection point. If the animal has to be kept for more than 24 hours, it can be kept in a cardboard box with ventilation and can be fed with cat food.

COFIB technicians are in charge of treating possible pathologies and rearing them until they are ready to fly for the first time. Normally, this process lasts until mid-July, when the post-nuptial migration begins and they leave again for Africa to spend the winter.

Swifts (Apus apus) are migratory birds that come to the Balearic Islands in spring to breed. Moreover, it is a species that carries out all its biological activity in flight and only stops to breed after its second year of life. It is listed under special protection in the Balearic catalogue of endangered species.