Launching a Europe-wide survey of wildlife rescue centres

📣 We are launching a Europe-wide survey of wildlife rescue centres to assess how heatwaves and extreme weather impact swift nestlings, using large-scale admission data.

In recent years, wildlife rescue centres have reported sudden spikes in the number of nestlings and fledglings admitted during heatwaves and other extreme events. These patterns remain poorly quantified at large spatial scales — and that is exactly where rescue centres can become unique allies for ecology and conservation.

The project focuses on the common swift (Apus apus), the pallid swift (Apus pallidus) and the Alpine swift (Tachymarptis melba). By combining rescue data with high-resolution climatic information, we aim to uncover the mechanisms linking extreme weather to mortality risk in young swifts — and to provide evidence-based recommendations for the conservation of breeding colonies.

Take part — share the survey

If your centre collects data on swifts, please complete our short survey to help us map available data and build the network. The survey is currently available in 23 languages, split below into two groups.

Native translations (prepared with native speakers — please prefer these if available):

English | Deutsch | Español | Français | Italiano

Machine translations of the original English form (some wording may not be perfectly accurate — please contact us at giulia.masoero@vogelwarte.ch if anything is unclear):

Bulgarian | Croatian | Czech | Danish | Dutch | Finnish | Greek | Hungarian | Norwegian | Polish | Portuguese | Romanian | Serbian | Slovak | Slovenian | Swedish | Turkish | Ukrainian

Please help us by sharing the survey as widely as possible!

🔗 Full project description: Saving swifts, understanding climate.

✉️ Contact: giulia.masoero@vogelwarte.ch