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Chimney Swift

Chaetura pelagica

COSEWIC Status: Threatened

COSSARO Status: Threatened

Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada

The committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada is a committee of experts who determine the national status of native species thought to be at risk of disappearing from Canada. Members include academics, specialists, Aboriginal people or government, & biologists.

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Species at Risk Status

Threatened

This species is likely to become endangered if limiting factors are not reversed.

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Committee on the Status of Species at Risk in Ontario

The committee on the Status of Species at Risk in Ontario reviews the COSEWIC status reports for species that occur in Ontario, then makes recommendations on the appropriate provincial status of the species. Provincial status is identified on the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks Species at Risk in Ontario (SARO) List.

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Species at Risk Status

Threatened

This species is likely to become endangered if limiting factors are not reversed.

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Credit: Bruno Kern

Have you seen this species at risk? Report your sighting.

Habits and Reproduction

• Chatters constantly as it flies and spends most of its waking hours on the air.
• Able to echolocate.
• Migrant returning mid May from Peru.
• May live ~14 yrs.
• Rest in chimneys during migration.
• Day shift feeder that screens the air for insects.
• Nest in dark sheltered places, such as in chimneys (uncapped, unlined chimneys generally build pre 1960), barns, silos and large hollow trees
• Nests tend to be within 1 km of water
• Half saucer like nest built from twigs and “glued” with salvia
• Lays 4-5 eggs
• Monogamous
• ~7,500 of breeding age in Ontario

Threats

• With the removal of old growth forests, for the past 150 years, swifts have depended on large chimneys for nesting sites. With fewer chimneys of that style, old barns and silos, they have lost their preferred nesting sites.
• Pesticide use particularly in wintering grounds.
• Susceptible to severe weather at migration and breeding time

Conservation Actions

• If you think your chimney has nesting swifts please don’t clean it during breeding season (May-September).
• Consider leaving your chimney unlined and directly vent your furnace.
• For more information in the Parry Sound area, contact:

Thanks to the official sponsors of the Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas (Bird Studies Canada, Canadian Wildlife Service, Federation of Ontario Naturalists, Ontario Field Ornithologists, and Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources) for supplying Atlas data, and to the thousands of volunteer participants who gathered data for the project.