Did you know? Swifts sleep while flying—these incredible birds can stay airborne for up to 10 months without landing!

High in the belfry of Wells Cathedral’s North West tower, a quiet but hopeful initiative is taking flight.

The skies above Wells may soon see the return of one of Britain’s most extraordinary summer visitors, as the pioneering swift conservation project at Wells Cathedral entered a new and exciting phase today.

Sixteen purpose-built nest boxes, discreetly tucked into the shutters of the North West Tower belfry, have officially been activated with sound-enhanced technology. At the heart of this event was Tim Norriss, founder of the conservation charity Hampshire Swifts, who made the climb up the tower to switch on small speakers that will now play recorded swift calls three times daily, from May to July. These calls are designed to attract swifts returning from Africa in search of nesting sites.

Joining Tim was local environmental consultant Simon Nash, who helped lead the original installation of the nest boxes last year. After the switch-on, Nash and Norriss gave a talk to Cathedral volunteers, sharing insights into swift behaviour, the urgency of conservation, and how Wells Cathedral’s initiative fits into the wider national effort to reverse swift population decline.

Swifts are truly remarkable birds—spending nearly their entire lives on the wing, even sleeping and mating in flight. Yet despite their resilience in the air, they face mounting threats on the ground. The UK has lost around 70% of its swift population in the last three decades, largely due to a drastic decline in nesting opportunities caused by modern building practices that seal off the nooks and crannies swifts once relied on.

In Wells, the decline has been especially stark: from around 25 known nesting sites 40 years ago, just three remain today. The Cathedral’s elevated tower provides ideal conditions to help turn that around. Swifts prefer high, undisturbed places to breed—and churches, with their height and heritage, have become critical refuges.

The new swift boxes, high in the North West tower of the Cathedral’s iconic West Front.

The new boxes are timed with the birds’ arrival in early May. If successful, the project could mirror the success seen at Winchester Cathedral, where a similar approach has grown from a single nesting pair to over a dozen in just a few years.

Simon Nash praised the Cathedral’s leadership in the project, saying, “Wells Cathedral has stepped up as a model for other communities. With swifts now on the Red List of highest conservation concern, every nesting site counts. This is a small act with the potential for huge ecological impact.”

The speakers will run daily until the end of July, after which they’ll be turned off to allow the birds to settle in peace. The Cathedral and conservation partners hope that, with time, these new boxes will host generations of swifts to come.

Residents and visitors alike are encouraged to look up—and listen—over the coming weeks. With luck and a little patience, the sky above Wells Cathedral may soon echo once more with the screeching calls and swift aerial displays of one of Somerset’s most iconic birds.