One of the simplest ways to help Common Swifts is to keep your eyes open.
Is scaffolding being put up somewhere in your neighbourhood between May and early September? Perhaps it is even being covered with netting?
Young Common Swifts could be sentenced to death right here!
Watch out for parent birds desperately trying to reach their nest – now blocked by scaffolding and netting – in order to feed their young! If that is the case, you must step in immediately. First of all, speak to the construction workers calmly and politely and ask them to remove the netting along the roof ledge. Often this alone is enough to make the nest accessible again. In some cases, however, scaffold boards may also have to be removed if they block the entrance hole.
If your request is refused, contact the local nature conservation authority (Untere Naturschutzbehörde). Insist that staff come to the site without delay to assess the situation and order the necessary measures.
But things need not be quite so dramatic. Perhaps you will simply spot an ideal place to create a new nesting site.