PART of the Swansea Valley will become a safe haven for swifts in order to help conserve the species.

The UK’s swift population has declined by 58 per cent since 1995, with a 75 per cent drop in Wales, leading to the birds being placed on the Red List of Birds of Conservation Concern.

This has spurred Neath Port Talbot Council and Glantawe Outdoor Education Academy to join forces and will be putting a ‘swift tower’ at Glantawe Riverside Park in Pontardawe.

South Wales Guardian: A swift tower will be placed in the park.A swift tower will be placed in the park. (Image: Neath Port Talbot Council)

It will be a prominent, seven metre high piece of art which will inform residents and visitors about swifts and to inspire people to take action to help swifts and other urban nature. It will also provide additional nesting spaces for swifts and other urban wildlife to help address the long-term loss of traditional nest sites in buildings.

Pontardawe is a hotspot for swifts as has been found by members of the NPT Local Nature Partnership recording sightings. So to help the birds, the swift tower will be put in place thanks to Welsh Government Green Recovery Fund money. The tower will also be fitted with a swift caller audio system which will play the call of the swift at certain times to attract swifts to investigate. It will play in the mornings and evenings over the summer months.

Cllr Cen Phillips, Neath Port Talbot Council’s cabinet member for nature, tourism and wellbeing, said: “This is a thoroughly worthwhile project as swift numbers have declined so dramatically in recent years.

“It seems this area is popular with the birds and the new swift tower will provide them with a nesting area after their exhausting journeys from Africa and place to build up their strength for the flight back.”

Every year, swifts fly more than 6,000 miles from southern Africa to arrive on our shores in May. They nest, lay their eggs and rear their chicks before making the return flight in August.

However, many of the birds do not survive the hazardous journey and when those that do survive, they struggle to find suitable places to nest as modern and renovated buildings do not contain the holes, nooks and crannies that the birds need.