The Frankfurt Swift Clinic sees its tasks particularly in the professional veterinary care of injured and needy swifts as well as in the species-appropriate rearing of orphaned young swifts. The goal of every inpatient admission and treatment of a swift is the restoration of its fitness for release and its reintegration into nature.
As a permanent flyer and long-distance migrant, the swift is subject to extreme living conditions. Therefore, very specific knowledge and experience are required in assessing injuries, which the veterinarian and staff of the Swift Clinic have acquired in dealing with now over 5,000 swifts. Certain injuries, such as wing fractures, must be assessed considerably differently and more uncompromisingly than in many other wild birds. Only in this way can avoidable suffering, pain and damage be spared to the affected swifts in accordance with Section 1 of the Animal Welfare Act.
This also applies to proper handling of uninjured young swifts admitted only for rearing, which frequently end up in human hands, particularly due to the progressive destruction of their nesting sites, but also through the loss of parent birds. Young swifts found on the ground always depend on human help, as the adult birds do not feed outside the nest. However, if human help is not oriented to the special needs of these highly complicated foster children (sole feeding with insects, correct feeding technique and housing, etc.), the exact opposite is often achieved: Despite great commitment on the part of the finders, improper care often leads to irreparable damage and unnecessary death of the affected animals.
Through professional care and veterinary treatment at the Frankfurt Swift Clinic, a large proportion of the foster birds can be released into the wild without problems and thus saved for the natural population.
Furthermore, extensive advisory and educational work on the topic of swifts is carried out at the Swift Clinic, particularly by telephone. Advisory conversations with finders of swifts, veterinarians, animal shelters, other bird care facilities, authorities and interested persons are conducted almost around the clock. Contacts with scientific institutions such as the University of Frankfurt, with municipal facilities as well as cooperation with the nature conservation authority, veterinary office, police and fire department are an important part of the office activities at the Swift Clinic. In this context, meticulous administration and archiving of patient data is also of great importance. Transit and ringing lists are sent annually to the Darmstadt Regional Council and the Ringing Centre of the Helgoland Bird Observatory, where the clinic director, Christiane Haupt, is listed as a ringer.
In recent years, proceedings under the Federal Nature Conservation Act and the Animal Welfare Act have become increasingly extensive. Due to the increasing energy-efficient renovation of buildings, the demolition of vacant buildings and the new use of office buildings as residential space with associated changes, the concerns of building-nesting bird protection are repeatedly disregarded. Some owners look for compatible solutions in advance; but time and again, neighbours or tenants alert us to planned or already installed construction sites. At the Swift Clinic, both those seeking advice are counselled and authorities are prompted to check and intervene.
A not insignificant area of responsibility is the training and education of new staff and, recently, occasionally also the supervision of interns and observers.