BirdLife preserves Swiss bank swallow habitat

BirdLife calls for bank swallow habitat to be preserved Keystone-SDA

Bank swallows are threatened in Switzerland because they can no longer find natural waterways with steep banks for nesting, environmentalist warn.

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BirdLife Switzerland is therefore creating new habitats for Europe’s smallest swallow.

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Maintaining existing colonies in gravel pits is a priority, writes BirdLife on Monday. Where this is not possible, special sand embankments can be used to remedy the situation: these are artificial walls made from a special sand mixture that provides the birds with optimum conditions for digging their nesting galleries.

The success of this innovative approach has been confirmed: in 2024, there were already around 2,700 nesting pairs in artificial sand walls, which means that around a third of the birds are already nesting in these embankments created just for them.

In French-speaking Switzerland, several colonies have been preserved and even expanded in this way, in the cantons of Geneva, Vaud and Fribourg.

Preserving existing nesting sites in gravel pits remains a key task. BirdLife Switzerland calls on the cantons and gravel pit operators to incorporate the needs of bank swallows into their planning at an early stage. There are already many positive examples of collaboration.

Translated from French by DeepL/mga

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