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Swift bricks to be installed on all new buildings in Scotland

137 points by bookofjoe 6mo ago

iamjs 6mo ago
Cool project! My folks get Cliff Swallows nesting under the eaves above their door in central Texas and they make a huge mess. I wish we could encourage them to nest on the side of the house with some bespoke bricks, but they enjoy the doorway.
- Loughla 6mo ago
  We had chimney swifts growing up. They were bastards who built nests that would just absolutely clog the chimney. But it was neat to watch them circle and drop into the chimney by the dozens right before dark. One of my best memories is my grandfather cussing loudly down the chimney in the fall as he cleaned out their nests. It just echoed through the house from the stove.
boomboomsubban 6mo ago
As I found the article did a poor job of demonstrating what a swift brick is, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swift_brick https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swift_brick
- IshKebab 6mo ago
  It has two very clear pictures at the top...?
  - boomboomsubban 6mo ago
    There's a picture of a box with a bunch of playing cards on top of it, then a picture of a building that has one. I found it insufficient and thought others might too.
    - mynameisvlad 6mo ago
      There's a picture of the brick, you mean.
      - boomboomsubban 6mo ago
        That was not clear to me. Dunno why people are making such a big deal out of "if you want more info, go here."
        stavros 6mo ago
        I agree with you, I immediately understood what they are, but what's the problem with more clarification? I've upvoted you.
        pdpi 6mo ago
        Offering clarification is good, shitting on the article is bad. The article does, in fact, do a perfectly fine job of explaining what a swift brick is. GP could easily have said “I couldn’t quite picture what a swift brick is”, but instead said “article did a poor job explaining swift bricks”, and that’s what they’re getting criticised for.
- cassianoleal 6mo ago
  I opened the article without a clue about what they were. Within my first 5-10 s on it I knew what they were. Literally right below the title: > bricks that provide nesting for swifts and other endangered birds And a picture.
  - deleted 6mo ago
    [deleted]
quercusa 6mo ago
It's weird to see starlings listed as endangered. We seem to have no shortage of the darn things in the US.
- arethuza 6mo ago
  "Starlings declined by 57% between 1995 and 2023 and they now feature on the Red List of birds of high conservation concern." https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/starling https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/starling
  - card_zero 6mo ago
    "Common Starling Sturnus vulgaris has most recently been assessed for The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in 2018. Sturnus vulgaris is listed as Least Concern." https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22710886/137493608 https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22710886/137493608
- _whiteCaps_ 6mo ago
  All thanks to a Shakespeare fan, Eugene Schieffelin. https://read.dukeupress.edu/environmental-humanities/article/13/2/301/234995/Shakespeare-s-StarlingsLiterary-History-and-the https://read.dukeupress.edu/environmental-humanities/article...
jedberg 6mo ago
Do they not have mice and rats there? This looks like a place those creatures would nest long before a bird got to it.
- davisoneee 6mo ago
  I live close to the most populous city in Scotland (Glasgow), and even only 6mile (10km) out of the city there is extensive greenery. Rats and mice are very uncommon here. They are rarely seen in the city, and I live close to very large fields and open countryside. 1. These bricks are normally installed close to the roof, under the guttering. 2. If anything, the main rodent of concern would be squirrels...but they will nest in the gutters anyway so having a sealed metal box with a very small opening is likely better anyway.
  - nephihaha 6mo ago
    There are a lot of mice in the Scottish countryside. We used to live way out of any major city and still got them.
  - arethuza 6mo ago
    I live in rural Fife - effectively in the middle of a farm. We get mice in the house in October or so when it starts getting colder - never seen a rat here. Oddly I've never seen a fox here although I used to see them all the time when we lived in central Edinburgh.
  - giobox 6mo ago
    > They are rarely seen in the city Rats and mice are ridiculously common in central Glasgow, its plagued the city for years to the point many argue its a public health crisis. While sure the suburbs might be better, I've never once seen someone describe Glasgow and rats being uncommon in the same sentence. I literally can't visit Glasgow without seeing an enormous rat in the street 5 minutes after arriving. There are loads of nice things I will say about Glasgow - I lived there for decades. Being low on the rat count is not one of them. The local politicians constantly talk about the rat plague too. > https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glasgow-news/rats-plague-glasgow-streets-population-33474687 https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glasgow-news/rats-plague-... > https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-66732675 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-66732675 > https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glasgow-news/glasgow-rat-population-soars-45-30076154 https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glasgow-news/glasgow-rat-... > https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/probe-finds-60000-rats-invading-36733511 https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/probe-finds...
Markoff 6mo ago
I fail to see how ordinary brick can accommodate bird nest inside, it's way too small and the brick in the article is way too big, seem almost like double depth, so how can this be used actually without disrupting design?
- davisoneee 6mo ago
  The bricks extend into the cavity region behind the brickwork. Here, pretty much all homes have a gap between the brickwork and the structure to prevent moisture transfer (although in recent-ish history firms have done cavity insulation, which often has negative consequences as done poorly can result in quite extensive damp and mold).
  - Markoff 6mo ago
    I would think the cavity will be filled with insulation and if you remove it and install there this empty brick you will be leaking heat through this place which will be significantly coolder/noisier.
    - pavon 6mo ago
      The article image showed it install high on the wall, in what would be the attic. And there are alternate designs that are normal depth, but multiple bricks tall and wide.
    - 0xbadcafebee 6mo ago
      Swift bricks are a fully enclosed unit (other than the hole on the outside)
    - IshKebab 6mo ago
      Potentially but in the photo it is installed in a gable which aren't usually insulated.
GaryBluto 6mo ago
If there were tax incentives for this instead of it being mandatory I'd support it wholeheartedly, but the idea of people being forced to directly attract and accommodate animals to/on their property under threat of punishment is unnerving to me. It's a completely different thing to being made to leave an existing den or nest alone.
- pixl97 6mo ago
  I think it would be fun for wildlife to have their own barrister to bring lawsuits against people like you for destroying what was otherwise their native grounds before us meat viruses spread wanton destruction everywhere. The fact is you can't leave 'existing' alone, there is none. In countries like the UK the place has been completely and totally terraformed by people.
  - nothinkjustai 6mo ago
    Would prey be able to sue predators for assault as well? Or is this just a uniquely anti-human sentiment?
  - GaryBluto 6mo ago
    > us meat viruses I wonder what brings about this sort of reverse-chauvinist viewpoint? Humans are "nature" too, and we have just as much of a right to planet we live on. > The fact is you can't leave 'existing' alone, there is none. What does this even mean?
    - nephihaha 6mo ago
      It's a form of self-loathing, often among middle class people. It is possible to be pro-nature and pro-humans. But there is a misanthropic element in some of these types.
      - pixl97 6mo ago
        Yea, no. "hur de dur, you have to hate yourself and all other humans if you even attempt to recognize the absolute destruction we are causing around us" >t is possible to be pro-nature and pro-humans. No, really it's too late for that in most senses. We the humans fucked up and the vast majority of species are suffering because of it. Now, we the human species are really starting to get our comeuppance from climate change. With the average American around me saying "roll more coal" there is no nice happy ending here where we don't wipe out 99.5% of the species in the next 100 years. Hey, a few billion years ago anerobic oxygen producing bacteria poisoned the planet, almost extincting themselves, yet they opened a new path for other multicellular animals to take over the planet. Maybe after we kill ourselves off because we're too dumb not to suffocate ourselves some nice slime moulds will take over.
tdb7893 6mo ago
In the US bird populations are down 30% since the 70s (with many species seeing much more significant declines) and you see similar trends in many other countries. You'll probably see a lot more of these sorts of conservation efforts as people start to realize how dire things are ecologically. Source for decline number: https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.aaw1313 https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.aaw1313 I also know the numbers are similarly dire across the animal kingdom. At least birds aren't doing as poorly as amphibians where 40% of species are threatened (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10567568/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10567568/)
- isleyaardvark 6mo ago
  Even during the 70s there were already conservation efforts. The Eastern bluebird almost went extinct in the 70s but a bunch of Americans built birdhouses for them.
  - tdb7893 6mo ago
    Yeah, in some way losing 3 billion birds in the US is painting a rosy picture. Raptors are one of the groups that has had an overall increase but that's partially because DDT was only banned in 1972. Passenger pigeons were also possibly the most numerous bird in the world (with population estimates around 4 billion) and were long extinct by 1970. It sounds very doom and gloom but I should say that there's also tons and tons of people working very hard to make things better (like the woman in this article). I've met a lot of people working very hard at conservation, generally for little personal benefit since the pay is abysmal, and it's always very heartening.
erhserhdfd 6mo ago
I am frustrated by this article. 1. Why focus on Swifts as opposed to any other species in decline? They state that they are "iconic", so maybe that's the answer? Are they more "iconic" than any other specifies in Scotland? 2. Why are these bricks the best solution? Why not take that money that would be spent on bricks and instead preserve land, or just build them dedicated houses elsewhere? 3. Why does this need to be done via government mandate versus voluntarily asking people to build Swift housing in existing buildings or land? I'm worried that this is a government policy with great intentions that will result in economic costs with unmeasured benefits and bureaucratic bloat. Hopefully I am proven wrong!
- 4ndrewl 6mo ago
  The article focuses on swifts because it's about swift bricks, a cheap and practical answer to helping the declining swift population. But don't worry, there are plenty of other initiatives elsewhere across Scotland and the UK helping other species of birds, seeing as you're clearly interested in this subject.
- jgraham 6mo ago
  > 1. Why focus on Swifts as opposed to any other species in decline? They state that they are "iconic", so maybe that's the answer? Are they more "iconic" than any other specifies in Scotland? They are a red-listed species whose population in the UK has declined by two thirds in 30 years. They are also a species for which there's an obvious measure that can be taken to reverse one of the changes which we know has happened over that time (improved building standards reducing the availability of nesting spaces). If we can't take simple steps to protect swifts I don't think there's much chance that we'll protect anything. Conservation wise, this is really low hanging fruit. > 2. Why are these bricks the best solution? Why not take that money that would be spent on bricks and instead preserve land, or just build them dedicated houses elsewhere? Swifts are extremely site-loyal. You can't just hope that they will move elsewhere. Before buildings they nested in caves and tree cavities. Caves in particular don't move from year to year, so as a result the birds have a strong preference to return to the exact same location where they themselves were born and are slow to colonize other places. Also your suggestions sound extremely expensive compared to this plan. Swift bricks cost like 30GBP retail. Yes, that's a lot more than the normal house brick they replace, but it's trivial compared to the other costs of building a house. > 3. Why does this need to be done via government mandate versus voluntarily asking people to build Swift housing in existing buildings or land? That's more or less the current situation in England, and perhaps unsurprisingly it's extremely rare for developers to actually install swift bricks. Indeed it's relatively uncommon for developers to actually follow through on their existing legally mandated ecological commitments [1]. Making something mandatory everywhere is also cheaper than making it only required in certain places: it eliminates all the bureaucracy around deciding whether this or that development is in the right area, and makes it extremely easy to follow and enforce the rules. Now it is possible that the lack of nest sites isn't the dominant factor in the decline of swifts. For example it could also be related to the decline in flying insects, or changing weather patterns induced by climate change. We aren't really sure [2], however from that study: "it would be precautionary for conservation efforts to continue to focus on ensuring that safe and productive nesting sites are in sufficient supply", and we also know that the swift bricks will be used by many other bird species as well as swifts. [1] https://wildjustice.org.uk/lost-nature-report/ https://wildjustice.org.uk/lost-nature-report/ [2] https://www.bto.org/our-work/science/publications/papers/demography-common-swifts-apus-apus-breeding-uk https://www.bto.org/our-work/science/publications/papers/dem...
sega_sai 6mo ago
In the ideal world that would be a good idea, but in the real world with severe housing shortages, not enough house building it is not in my opinion
- stronglikedan 6mo ago
  it costs nothing and hinders nothing, yet provides a benefit, so I don't see how it couldn't be a good idea. it has no impact on housing in any way
  - slopinthebag 6mo ago
    [flagged]
- pibaker 6mo ago
  The brick is £35 each according to the article. That's practically nothing compared to the total cost of a modern house.
  - sega_sai 6mo ago
    The problem is not the brick price, but extra regulations, controls that they are followed etc, plus the fact that now instead of say 10000 identical bricks for one house you need 9999 ones + one different. I simply think the priority should be more house building as people struggle to find places to live, and this measure will not help (the effect will probably be small I don't know)
    - reaperducer 6mo ago
      It's a house, not a wall. And it's not being built by a robot. Adding the brick is inconsequential. Go to any building site and ask a bricklayer if adding a single custom brick to the construction will stop them building the house and he'll laugh in your face.
      - anigbrowl 6mo ago
foo-bar-baz529 6mo ago
Are these Swift 6.3 bricks, or legacy ones?
- jacobp100 6mo ago
  Legacy - they’re blocking
ruralfam 6mo ago
We have a lot of swallows (mostly barn and green) on our rural property. Wife is currently battling a pair that wants to build a nest above the back door. Anyway... In the evenings and mornings there might be one dozen or more contstantly flying around between our trees eating insects. Somewhat mesmerizing to watch. Gemini says a single swallow eats about 850 insects per day. Pretty sure that includes a high percentage of mozzies and flies. 850 x 12 = 10,200. Let's assume 50% mozzies (we have lots). So 5,100 fewer per day. Go swallows Go. Reminds me of a story I read about an overpass in Texas that housed tons of bats. It creeped some folks out, so they disallowed them to roost. Once the bats were gone, the neighborhood was overrun with insects. Did not take long to have the humans get the bats back. Go bats go.
- ErroneousBosh 6mo ago
  That reminds me of a guy one one of the mailing lists I'm on. His neighbour dug a pond on his ground somewhere in a particularly mozzie-infested part of rural Texas. Plenty shade, trees around, nice big pond. "But that's crazy", everyone said, "that'll be a breeding ground for more mosquitoes, that's where they'll all go!" And you know what, they were right. It was hoaching with mozzies, who laid their eggs in the water, which then hatched into mosquito larvae. Which were then promptly eaten by all the carp he'd stocked it with. Year on year the circle of "not many mosquitoes any more" around his farm has expanded by about quarter of a mile.
damnesian 6mo ago
this made me weep a little. I suppose because the prevailing attitude in the west nowadays is who gives a damn about preserving species.
- stinos 6mo ago
  Amongst the money and power seeking it definitely is but I'm not sure how prevailing that really is among the general population. I think for starters many don't even realize there's a biodiversity crisis (doesn't exactly appear on mainstream media that often, plus there's the shifting baseline). And those that do realize there are some issues might give a damn but don't know what to do about it. Anyway: if there's anything I'd weep about it's that measures like these are needed in the first place. Far too little, far too late. But to be honest I stopped weeping and just do whatever I can personally such that the day I die I can at least have some peace with my life.
js2 6mo ago
> Hannah Bourne-Taylor, who has campaigned for swift bricks nationally for four years. The article apparently undersells her role. Clicking through to her site, she seems to have been almost singularly responsible for making this happen: > For my campaign – for swifts – I have walked through London naked, twice. First to launch the petition (how else would a nobody reach the almost impossible target?) and secondly to the meeting at the Home Office, with Zac Goldsmith by my side in an unprecedented show of alliance, to remind the government that swifts’ existence is at stake. https://hannahbournetaylor.com/the-feather-speech-campaign-for-swifts/ https://hannahbournetaylor.com/the-feather-speech-campaign-f... (Probably NSFW photo on that page.)
- rich_sasha 6mo ago
  Someone called Taylor campaigning for Swifts. Pretty cool coincidence.
- pavel_lishin 6mo ago
  Her photo on the linked article definitely makes her seem quite determined to get this done. "Your house is getting a swift brick, your choice is whether you install it during construction, or I install it through your window."
  - js2 6mo ago
    No kidding. From an earlier article: > During her campaign, she’s been trolled by everyone from ministers to abusive internet trolls. “The worst ones are not the horrible violent ones, it’s the relentless, patronising criticism from nature lovers – ‘This is just one species, this is not going to solve the nature crisis.’ Firstly, [the brick] is not just for one species. And secondly, you’d like little old me to stop pesticide use? Let me just get on that right now. We shouldn’t just get Chris Packham to do everything. The nature crisis is on us.” > In private, says Bourne-Taylor, politicians “always say things like: ‘Oh, legislation is very hard.’ That’s your job. Do your job. A senior Labour minister told me that [housing minister] Matthew Pennycook was getting irritated by the mention of swift bricks, implying that I should pipe down. How about you just do it and then I’ll go away?” https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/may/05/the-hypocrisy-is-staggering-will-swift-bricks-fall-prey-to-government-fears-of-reform https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/may/05/the-hypo...
detourdog 6mo ago
I have an old 80 foot chimney from a coal furnace. I maintain it simple for the annual chimney swifts. They come in mid April and leave in August. Apparently only 2 raise a family in it but it ends up with 100s at its peak occupancy. It’s getting re-pointed this year and I will have 2 hi-def cameras installed at the top to capture the activity. Might end up being my first AI project.
- deleted 6mo ago
  [deleted]
- js2 6mo ago
  Chimney swift vs common swift. The two species adapted to habitat loss and urbanization differently.
  - detourdog 6mo ago
    Another big difference appears to be they live in different parts of the world. Chimney Swifts migrate between North and South America and the common Swift migrates between Europe/Asia and Africa. https://www.earthofbirds.com/common-swift-vs-chimney-swift/ https://www.earthofbirds.com/common-swift-vs-chimney-swift/
nephihaha 6mo ago
The Guardian reporting on Scottish politics for a change.
arjie 6mo ago
Building construction in the UK is not the fastest most-frequent thing to start with. And planning constraints can be quite strict[0]. > Julia Moulder, development director at Catalyst and chair of the G15 development committee, said: ‘If you can’t source the brick and you change it you need to go back through the planning process, and that is something that’s started happening. I think it is going to start to knock on through into delays.’ > Ian Tallentire, development director at Home Group, said he has had three or four recent instances where a brick has been changed, necessitating new planning conditions. > ‘I have had project managers on the phone saying we need to keep going, and then you just have to make the call. If the bricks are very similar I am sometimes happy to take the risk and then go back and sort the planning permission out,’ he said. As with most well-meaning legislation on building in Anglophone countries, these schemes are all highly-popular, cause death by a thousand cuts, and then people who like them afterwards go on to complain about how 'corporations' or 'immigrants' or 'Airbnb' or some other bogeyman is responsible for "The Housing Crisis" and so on. Before you know it, you will be lobbying your government to declare a Housing Emergency[1] and asking for them to add more requirements to building housing to ensure that sufficient housing is built; and they will gladly acquiesce to the will of the people which, while strong, can nonetheless not fight physics or economics. 0: https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/brick-shortage-delay-threat-40113 https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/brick-shortage-delay-th... 1: https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/committees/current-and-previous-committees/Session-6/session-6-local-government-housing-and-planning/business-items/housing-to-2040-and-housing-emergency/housing-emergency https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/committee...
- harimau777 6mo ago
  I don't think that 35 pounds is likely to be a significant driver of rising home prices.
  - arjie 6mo ago
    But having to wait months for planning permission because you had to substitute the specialized brick will be. The thing with thousand cuts is that no single cut is significant. There are a thousand of them. And they're all small.

137 points by bookofjoe 6mo ago

iamjs 6mo ago

Cool project! My folks get Cliff Swallows nesting under the eaves above their door in central Texas and they make a huge mess. I wish we could encourage them to nest on the side of the house with some bespoke bricks, but they enjoy the doorway.

Loughla 6mo ago
We had chimney swifts growing up. They were bastards who built nests that would just absolutely clog the chimney. But it was neat to watch them circle and drop into the chimney by the dozens right before dark. One of my best memories is my grandfather cussing loudly down the chimney in the fall as he cleaned out their nests. It just echoed through the house from the stove.

boomboomsubban 6mo ago

As I found the article did a poor job of demonstrating what a swift brick is, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swift_brick https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swift_brick

IshKebab 6mo ago
It has two very clear pictures at the top...?
- boomboomsubban 6mo ago
  There's a picture of a box with a bunch of playing cards on top of it, then a picture of a building that has one. I found it insufficient and thought others might too.
  - mynameisvlad 6mo ago
    There's a picture of the brick, you mean.
    - boomboomsubban 6mo ago
      That was not clear to me. Dunno why people are making such a big deal out of "if you want more info, go here."
      - stavros 6mo ago
        I agree with you, I immediately understood what they are, but what's the problem with more clarification? I've upvoted you.
        pdpi 6mo ago
        Offering clarification is good, shitting on the article is bad. The article does, in fact, do a perfectly fine job of explaining what a swift brick is. GP could easily have said “I couldn’t quite picture what a swift brick is”, but instead said “article did a poor job explaining swift bricks”, and that’s what they’re getting criticised for.
cassianoleal 6mo ago
I opened the article without a clue about what they were. Within my first 5-10 s on it I knew what they were. Literally right below the title: > bricks that provide nesting for swifts and other endangered birds And a picture.
- deleted 6mo ago
  [deleted]

quercusa 6mo ago

It's weird to see starlings listed as endangered. We seem to have no shortage of the darn things in the US.

arethuza 6mo ago
"Starlings declined by 57% between 1995 and 2023 and they now feature on the Red List of birds of high conservation concern." https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/starling https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/starling
- card_zero 6mo ago
  "Common Starling Sturnus vulgaris has most recently been assessed for The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in 2018. Sturnus vulgaris is listed as Least Concern." https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22710886/137493608 https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22710886/137493608
_whiteCaps_ 6mo ago
All thanks to a Shakespeare fan, Eugene Schieffelin. https://read.dukeupress.edu/environmental-humanities/article/13/2/301/234995/Shakespeare-s-StarlingsLiterary-History-and-the https://read.dukeupress.edu/environmental-humanities/article...

jedberg 6mo ago

Do they not have mice and rats there? This looks like a place those creatures would nest long before a bird got to it.

davisoneee 6mo ago
I live close to the most populous city in Scotland (Glasgow), and even only 6mile (10km) out of the city there is extensive greenery. Rats and mice are very uncommon here. They are rarely seen in the city, and I live close to very large fields and open countryside. 1. These bricks are normally installed close to the roof, under the guttering. 2. If anything, the main rodent of concern would be squirrels...but they will nest in the gutters anyway so having a sealed metal box with a very small opening is likely better anyway.
- nephihaha 6mo ago
  There are a lot of mice in the Scottish countryside. We used to live way out of any major city and still got them.
- arethuza 6mo ago
  I live in rural Fife - effectively in the middle of a farm. We get mice in the house in October or so when it starts getting colder - never seen a rat here. Oddly I've never seen a fox here although I used to see them all the time when we lived in central Edinburgh.
- giobox 6mo ago
  > They are rarely seen in the city Rats and mice are ridiculously common in central Glasgow, its plagued the city for years to the point many argue its a public health crisis. While sure the suburbs might be better, I've never once seen someone describe Glasgow and rats being uncommon in the same sentence. I literally can't visit Glasgow without seeing an enormous rat in the street 5 minutes after arriving. There are loads of nice things I will say about Glasgow - I lived there for decades. Being low on the rat count is not one of them. The local politicians constantly talk about the rat plague too. > https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glasgow-news/rats-plague-glasgow-streets-population-33474687 https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glasgow-news/rats-plague-... > https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-66732675 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-66732675 > https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glasgow-news/glasgow-rat-population-soars-45-30076154 https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glasgow-news/glasgow-rat-... > https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/probe-finds-60000-rats-invading-36733511 https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/probe-finds...

Markoff 6mo ago

I fail to see how ordinary brick can accommodate bird nest inside, it's way too small and the brick in the article is way too big, seem almost like double depth, so how can this be used actually without disrupting design?

davisoneee 6mo ago
The bricks extend into the cavity region behind the brickwork. Here, pretty much all homes have a gap between the brickwork and the structure to prevent moisture transfer (although in recent-ish history firms have done cavity insulation, which often has negative consequences as done poorly can result in quite extensive damp and mold).
- Markoff 6mo ago
  I would think the cavity will be filled with insulation and if you remove it and install there this empty brick you will be leaking heat through this place which will be significantly coolder/noisier.
  - pavon 6mo ago
    The article image showed it install high on the wall, in what would be the attic. And there are alternate designs that are normal depth, but multiple bricks tall and wide.
  - 0xbadcafebee 6mo ago
    Swift bricks are a fully enclosed unit (other than the hole on the outside)
  - IshKebab 6mo ago
    Potentially but in the photo it is installed in a gable which aren't usually insulated.

GaryBluto 6mo ago

If there were tax incentives for this instead of it being mandatory I'd support it wholeheartedly, but the idea of people being forced to directly attract and accommodate animals to/on their property under threat of punishment is unnerving to me. It's a completely different thing to being made to leave an existing den or nest alone.

pixl97 6mo ago
I think it would be fun for wildlife to have their own barrister to bring lawsuits against people like you for destroying what was otherwise their native grounds before us meat viruses spread wanton destruction everywhere. The fact is you can't leave 'existing' alone, there is none. In countries like the UK the place has been completely and totally terraformed by people.
- nothinkjustai 6mo ago
  Would prey be able to sue predators for assault as well? Or is this just a uniquely anti-human sentiment?
- GaryBluto 6mo ago
  > us meat viruses I wonder what brings about this sort of reverse-chauvinist viewpoint? Humans are "nature" too, and we have just as much of a right to planet we live on. > The fact is you can't leave 'existing' alone, there is none. What does this even mean?
  - nephihaha 6mo ago
    It's a form of self-loathing, often among middle class people. It is possible to be pro-nature and pro-humans. But there is a misanthropic element in some of these types.
    - pixl97 6mo ago
      Yea, no. "hur de dur, you have to hate yourself and all other humans if you even attempt to recognize the absolute destruction we are causing around us" >t is possible to be pro-nature and pro-humans. No, really it's too late for that in most senses. We the humans fucked up and the vast majority of species are suffering because of it. Now, we the human species are really starting to get our comeuppance from climate change. With the average American around me saying "roll more coal" there is no nice happy ending here where we don't wipe out 99.5% of the species in the next 100 years. Hey, a few billion years ago anerobic oxygen producing bacteria poisoned the planet, almost extincting themselves, yet they opened a new path for other multicellular animals to take over the planet. Maybe after we kill ourselves off because we're too dumb not to suffocate ourselves some nice slime moulds will take over.

tdb7893 6mo ago

In the US bird populations are down 30% since the 70s (with many species seeing much more significant declines) and you see similar trends in many other countries. You'll probably see a lot more of these sorts of conservation efforts as people start to realize how dire things are ecologically. Source for decline number: https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.aaw1313 https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.aaw1313 I also know the numbers are similarly dire across the animal kingdom. At least birds aren't doing as poorly as amphibians where 40% of species are threatened (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10567568/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10567568/)

isleyaardvark 6mo ago
Even during the 70s there were already conservation efforts. The Eastern bluebird almost went extinct in the 70s but a bunch of Americans built birdhouses for them.
- tdb7893 6mo ago
  Yeah, in some way losing 3 billion birds in the US is painting a rosy picture. Raptors are one of the groups that has had an overall increase but that's partially because DDT was only banned in 1972. Passenger pigeons were also possibly the most numerous bird in the world (with population estimates around 4 billion) and were long extinct by 1970. It sounds very doom and gloom but I should say that there's also tons and tons of people working very hard to make things better (like the woman in this article). I've met a lot of people working very hard at conservation, generally for little personal benefit since the pay is abysmal, and it's always very heartening.

erhserhdfd 6mo ago

I am frustrated by this article. 1. Why focus on Swifts as opposed to any other species in decline? They state that they are "iconic", so maybe that's the answer? Are they more "iconic" than any other specifies in Scotland? 2. Why are these bricks the best solution? Why not take that money that would be spent on bricks and instead preserve land, or just build them dedicated houses elsewhere? 3. Why does this need to be done via government mandate versus voluntarily asking people to build Swift housing in existing buildings or land? I'm worried that this is a government policy with great intentions that will result in economic costs with unmeasured benefits and bureaucratic bloat. Hopefully I am proven wrong!

4ndrewl 6mo ago
The article focuses on swifts because it's about swift bricks, a cheap and practical answer to helping the declining swift population. But don't worry, there are plenty of other initiatives elsewhere across Scotland and the UK helping other species of birds, seeing as you're clearly interested in this subject.
jgraham 6mo ago
> 1. Why focus on Swifts as opposed to any other species in decline? They state that they are "iconic", so maybe that's the answer? Are they more "iconic" than any other specifies in Scotland? They are a red-listed species whose population in the UK has declined by two thirds in 30 years. They are also a species for which there's an obvious measure that can be taken to reverse one of the changes which we know has happened over that time (improved building standards reducing the availability of nesting spaces). If we can't take simple steps to protect swifts I don't think there's much chance that we'll protect anything. Conservation wise, this is really low hanging fruit. > 2. Why are these bricks the best solution? Why not take that money that would be spent on bricks and instead preserve land, or just build them dedicated houses elsewhere? Swifts are extremely site-loyal. You can't just hope that they will move elsewhere. Before buildings they nested in caves and tree cavities. Caves in particular don't move from year to year, so as a result the birds have a strong preference to return to the exact same location where they themselves were born and are slow to colonize other places. Also your suggestions sound extremely expensive compared to this plan. Swift bricks cost like 30GBP retail. Yes, that's a lot more than the normal house brick they replace, but it's trivial compared to the other costs of building a house. > 3. Why does this need to be done via government mandate versus voluntarily asking people to build Swift housing in existing buildings or land? That's more or less the current situation in England, and perhaps unsurprisingly it's extremely rare for developers to actually install swift bricks. Indeed it's relatively uncommon for developers to actually follow through on their existing legally mandated ecological commitments [1]. Making something mandatory everywhere is also cheaper than making it only required in certain places: it eliminates all the bureaucracy around deciding whether this or that development is in the right area, and makes it extremely easy to follow and enforce the rules. Now it is possible that the lack of nest sites isn't the dominant factor in the decline of swifts. For example it could also be related to the decline in flying insects, or changing weather patterns induced by climate change. We aren't really sure [2], however from that study: "it would be precautionary for conservation efforts to continue to focus on ensuring that safe and productive nesting sites are in sufficient supply", and we also know that the swift bricks will be used by many other bird species as well as swifts. [1] https://wildjustice.org.uk/lost-nature-report/ https://wildjustice.org.uk/lost-nature-report/ [2] https://www.bto.org/our-work/science/publications/papers/demography-common-swifts-apus-apus-breeding-uk https://www.bto.org/our-work/science/publications/papers/dem...

sega_sai 6mo ago

In the ideal world that would be a good idea, but in the real world with severe housing shortages, not enough house building it is not in my opinion

stronglikedan 6mo ago
it costs nothing and hinders nothing, yet provides a benefit, so I don't see how it couldn't be a good idea. it has no impact on housing in any way
- slopinthebag 6mo ago
  [flagged]
pibaker 6mo ago
The brick is £35 each according to the article. That's practically nothing compared to the total cost of a modern house.
- sega_sai 6mo ago
  The problem is not the brick price, but extra regulations, controls that they are followed etc, plus the fact that now instead of say 10000 identical bricks for one house you need 9999 ones + one different. I simply think the priority should be more house building as people struggle to find places to live, and this measure will not help (the effect will probably be small I don't know)
  - reaperducer 6mo ago
    It's a house, not a wall. And it's not being built by a robot. Adding the brick is inconsequential. Go to any building site and ask a bricklayer if adding a single custom brick to the construction will stop them building the house and he'll laugh in your face.
    - anigbrowl 6mo ago

foo-bar-baz529 6mo ago

Are these Swift 6.3 bricks, or legacy ones?

jacobp100 6mo ago
Legacy - they’re blocking

ruralfam 6mo ago

We have a lot of swallows (mostly barn and green) on our rural property. Wife is currently battling a pair that wants to build a nest above the back door. Anyway... In the evenings and mornings there might be one dozen or more contstantly flying around between our trees eating insects. Somewhat mesmerizing to watch. Gemini says a single swallow eats about 850 insects per day. Pretty sure that includes a high percentage of mozzies and flies. 850 x 12 = 10,200. Let's assume 50% mozzies (we have lots). So 5,100 fewer per day. Go swallows Go. Reminds me of a story I read about an overpass in Texas that housed tons of bats. It creeped some folks out, so they disallowed them to roost. Once the bats were gone, the neighborhood was overrun with insects. Did not take long to have the humans get the bats back. Go bats go.

ErroneousBosh 6mo ago
That reminds me of a guy one one of the mailing lists I'm on. His neighbour dug a pond on his ground somewhere in a particularly mozzie-infested part of rural Texas. Plenty shade, trees around, nice big pond. "But that's crazy", everyone said, "that'll be a breeding ground for more mosquitoes, that's where they'll all go!" And you know what, they were right. It was hoaching with mozzies, who laid their eggs in the water, which then hatched into mosquito larvae. Which were then promptly eaten by all the carp he'd stocked it with. Year on year the circle of "not many mosquitoes any more" around his farm has expanded by about quarter of a mile.

damnesian 6mo ago

this made me weep a little. I suppose because the prevailing attitude in the west nowadays is who gives a damn about preserving species.

stinos 6mo ago
Amongst the money and power seeking it definitely is but I'm not sure how prevailing that really is among the general population. I think for starters many don't even realize there's a biodiversity crisis (doesn't exactly appear on mainstream media that often, plus there's the shifting baseline). And those that do realize there are some issues might give a damn but don't know what to do about it. Anyway: if there's anything I'd weep about it's that measures like these are needed in the first place. Far too little, far too late. But to be honest I stopped weeping and just do whatever I can personally such that the day I die I can at least have some peace with my life.

js2 6mo ago

> Hannah Bourne-Taylor, who has campaigned for swift bricks nationally for four years. The article apparently undersells her role. Clicking through to her site, she seems to have been almost singularly responsible for making this happen: > For my campaign – for swifts – I have walked through London naked, twice. First to launch the petition (how else would a nobody reach the almost impossible target?) and secondly to the meeting at the Home Office, with Zac Goldsmith by my side in an unprecedented show of alliance, to remind the government that swifts’ existence is at stake. https://hannahbournetaylor.com/the-feather-speech-campaign-for-swifts/ https://hannahbournetaylor.com/the-feather-speech-campaign-f... (Probably NSFW photo on that page.)

rich_sasha 6mo ago
Someone called Taylor campaigning for Swifts. Pretty cool coincidence.
pavel_lishin 6mo ago
Her photo on the linked article definitely makes her seem quite determined to get this done. "Your house is getting a swift brick, your choice is whether you install it during construction, or I install it through your window."
- js2 6mo ago
  No kidding. From an earlier article: > During her campaign, she’s been trolled by everyone from ministers to abusive internet trolls. “The worst ones are not the horrible violent ones, it’s the relentless, patronising criticism from nature lovers – ‘This is just one species, this is not going to solve the nature crisis.’ Firstly, [the brick] is not just for one species. And secondly, you’d like little old me to stop pesticide use? Let me just get on that right now. We shouldn’t just get Chris Packham to do everything. The nature crisis is on us.” > In private, says Bourne-Taylor, politicians “always say things like: ‘Oh, legislation is very hard.’ That’s your job. Do your job. A senior Labour minister told me that [housing minister] Matthew Pennycook was getting irritated by the mention of swift bricks, implying that I should pipe down. How about you just do it and then I’ll go away?” https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/may/05/the-hypocrisy-is-staggering-will-swift-bricks-fall-prey-to-government-fears-of-reform https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/may/05/the-hypo...

detourdog 6mo ago

I have an old 80 foot chimney from a coal furnace. I maintain it simple for the annual chimney swifts. They come in mid April and leave in August. Apparently only 2 raise a family in it but it ends up with 100s at its peak occupancy. It’s getting re-pointed this year and I will have 2 hi-def cameras installed at the top to capture the activity. Might end up being my first AI project.

deleted 6mo ago
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js2 6mo ago
Chimney swift vs common swift. The two species adapted to habitat loss and urbanization differently.
- detourdog 6mo ago
  Another big difference appears to be they live in different parts of the world. Chimney Swifts migrate between North and South America and the common Swift migrates between Europe/Asia and Africa. https://www.earthofbirds.com/common-swift-vs-chimney-swift/ https://www.earthofbirds.com/common-swift-vs-chimney-swift/

nephihaha 6mo ago

The Guardian reporting on Scottish politics for a change.

arjie 6mo ago

Building construction in the UK is not the fastest most-frequent thing to start with. And planning constraints can be quite strict[0]. > Julia Moulder, development director at Catalyst and chair of the G15 development committee, said: ‘If you can’t source the brick and you change it you need to go back through the planning process, and that is something that’s started happening. I think it is going to start to knock on through into delays.’ > Ian Tallentire, development director at Home Group, said he has had three or four recent instances where a brick has been changed, necessitating new planning conditions. > ‘I have had project managers on the phone saying we need to keep going, and then you just have to make the call. If the bricks are very similar I am sometimes happy to take the risk and then go back and sort the planning permission out,’ he said. As with most well-meaning legislation on building in Anglophone countries, these schemes are all highly-popular, cause death by a thousand cuts, and then people who like them afterwards go on to complain about how 'corporations' or 'immigrants' or 'Airbnb' or some other bogeyman is responsible for "The Housing Crisis" and so on. Before you know it, you will be lobbying your government to declare a Housing Emergency[1] and asking for them to add more requirements to building housing to ensure that sufficient housing is built; and they will gladly acquiesce to the will of the people which, while strong, can nonetheless not fight physics or economics. 0: https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/brick-shortage-delay-threat-40113 https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/brick-shortage-delay-th... 1: https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/committees/current-and-previous-committees/Session-6/session-6-local-government-housing-and-planning/business-items/housing-to-2040-and-housing-emergency/housing-emergency https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/committee...

harimau777 6mo ago
I don't think that 35 pounds is likely to be a significant driver of rising home prices.
- arjie 6mo ago
  But having to wait months for planning permission because you had to substitute the specialized brick will be. The thing with thousand cuts is that no single cut is significant. There are a thousand of them. And they're all small.