Amsterdam is greening. More and more facade gardens often appear with the support of the municipality. Sparrows and swifts are considered in new-build projects, and a nature zone has been created near Nieuwmarkt for temporary reinforcements on the quayside. Every little bit helps!
Two men are very much in the way in the middle of the Ten Katemarkt in Amsterdam. Shoppers and a supplier’s bus circle around the two, looking straight up. Koen Wonders and the undersigned are distracted by swifts. They spin in circles through the air and from time to time let out the characteristic ‘screeching’.
“These are the youngsters from last year who don’t have a nest yet,” says Koen Wonders. As an urban ecologist for the municipality of Amsterdam, he is particularly interested in birds. “Those young animals fly past the nests where older swifts are now nesting. Those nests are under the roof tiles near the buoy section. Sometimes you also hear those older birds respond with howling from under the roof.”
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Swifts depend on the city. No roofs, no swifts. In the video, Koen tells a magical story about how young swifts, after hatching and leaving the nest for the first time, are continuously in the air for three years in a row. All the while, they didn’t set foot on the ground. Not even at night.
Koen explains in the video below how this is possible:
Swifts in the city – NH Nieuws