Minor point -- swifts don't perch on phone cables. That would be swallows and martins (unrelated). Swifts only land on the sorts of sheer rock faces / buildings

Minor point -- swifts don't perch on phone cables. That would be swallows and martins (unrelated). Swifts only land on the sorts of sheer rock faces / buildings that they nest in AFAIK. Final random swift observation: you can see some swift species hovering very briefly to take nectar from flowering trees which is cool, seeing as molecular and other evidence shows hummingbirds to be their closest extant lineage.